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August 13th, 2009

The incredible shrinking GOOG! 25% smaller...

Posted by Tom Foremski @ 6:01 pm

Categories: Trend watch

Tags: Google Inc., Index, Internet, Search, Tom Foremski

Something strange is going on, Google seems to be shedding huge amounts of its index. By my simple measure, the size of its index has shrunk by nearly 25 per cent over a period of just over 5 months. At this rate it will be half the size by the end of this year!

Occasionally, I will Google myself just to see what content others are linking to and what they are saying. But lately I’ve noticed that my citations in Google are shrinking. I’m producing ever more content, but Google is finding fewer references.

Let me give you a point of comparison. On March 3 2009 I wrote: Internet Myth: Watch What You Post Because Search Will Reveal Everything Forever.

At that time I Googled “Tom Foremski” and it came up with a search result of 135,000 pages in Google’s index.

Today, I did the same search, and came up with 102,000 pages in Google’s index.

I tried Bing and got 157,000 results.

What’s going on? Has Google run out of room? Is it deleting older content from its index? Or is it just me? I’ve no other point of comparison. Let me know if you’ve noticed something similar.

  • Talkback
  • Most Recent of 42 Talkback(s)
The Incredible Shrinking Foremski?
Have you actually posted 135,000 articles?

Perhaps Google is just fine-tuning so that a single mention
of your name which is not a link, no longer counts in search
results?
... (Read the rest)
Posted by: grail@... Posted on: 08/20/09 You are currently: a Guest | | Terms of Use
odd  coffeeshark | 08/13/09
Analysis is way too simple  Fred Fredrickson | 08/13/09
Or it could be  GuidingLight | 08/14/09
Too simple indeed  cburkitt2 | 08/14/09
How does the algorithm know its you and not another Fred Fredrickson?  de-void | 08/14/09
Right. Pagerank vs expectations vs quantity  Mikael_z | 08/15/09
RE: The incredible shrinking GOOG! 25% smaller...  Matthew Sommer | 08/13/09
Quite possibly...  Dietrich® | 08/14/09
there seem to be lots of duplicates in most searches  stevey_d | 08/14/09
Duplicates  sirpaul1 | 08/14/09
RE: The incredible shrinking GOOG! 25% smaller...  georgeh36 | 08/14/09
Dreaming...  Metronome49 | 08/14/09
BWHAW HAW HAW HAW HAW... grin  UAC nanny screen | 08/14/09
Not smaller index... more accurate results.  Metronome49 | 08/14/09
Can't get past 552 results...  foremskiZDNet Moderator | 08/14/09
I've noticed the same thing  lehnerus2000 | 08/15/09
RE: The incredible shrinking GOOG! 25% smaller...  ICUR12 | 08/14/09
RE: The incredible shrinking GOOG! 25% smaller...  raul.grp@... | 08/14/09
I have no hidden interests...  foremskiZDNet Moderator | 08/14/09
RE: The incredible shrinking GOOG! 25% smaller...  GeoffDuke | 08/14/09
RE: The incredible shrinking GOOG! 25% smaller...  skellmeyer | 08/14/09
So...references to you fall  The 'G-Man.' | 08/14/09
RE: The incredible shrinking GOOG! 25% smaller...  hiddenharmony@... | 08/14/09
Did it occur to you that...  zkiwi | 08/14/09
I found I was a gay porn star wrong Randall Lind  Randalllind | 08/14/09
That's what you (would) say ...........  goldenpirate@... | 08/14/09
METRICS  CaptOska | 08/14/09
Google Spam  ericesque | 08/14/09
Good question. Important question.  ksheppard@... | 08/14/09
I agree it's an important question  foremskiZDNet Moderator | 08/14/09
smaller is better, no?  gejepe@... | 08/14/09
Author is less longer relevant  dnheller | 08/14/09
Google is deciding what society thinks  TheVoiceOfTruth | 08/14/09
Perhaps exaggeration in the number of result was used as a marketing tool?  adornoe@... | 08/14/09
Poor analysis  Narg | 08/15/09
RE: The incredible shrinking GOOG! 25% smaller...  BaltimoreBarry | 08/15/09
RE: The incredible shrinking GOOG! 25% smaller...  razumney@... | 08/15/09
Good question, I agree  RepliCounts | 08/16/09
WOW ! Its true... Bing gives more search results  phil@... | 08/18/09
RE: The incredible shrinking GOOG! 25% smaller...  pappa_piglet@... | 08/18/09
Google removing many pages for sites  pcfanboy | 08/18/09
The Incredible Shrinking Foremski?  grail@... | 08/20/09

What do you think?

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