Big Daddy and Number of Query Results Returned

[HHI_Golf_Guy]

Has anyone else notice that the number of results returned for a Google search query has increased dramatically on all DC's showing the Big Daddy update?

In most cases I have seen the number of search results returned for a given query double, triple, or even quadruple.

I don't think that the number of actual pages in the Google index has increased. Instead, I think that this infrastructure change allows G to return more results for any given query. I also notice that I can dig much deeper into the SERP results for any given search phrase.

So far I do not see any indication that this is making it tougher to optimize for a phrase because of the increased number of competing pages. After all, a poorly optimized page is still a poorly optimized page.

[israle]

Yes, I have noticed a strange thing happening with Google at the moment. Google Australia in particular - http://www.google.com.au. At various times of the day the returned results AND rankings change for the same keyword phrase.

One example, if you search for 'Australian Landscape Photography', the returned results will sometimes be around 263,000 and other times 239,000. In the first instance my site ranks in 5th position and the second 7th position. This will change at random during the day.

I have noticed this happening for quite a few different keyphrases.

Further to this, if I click the 'Cached' link below my sites listing it will show my current site in the first instance and a 3 week old version in the second.

Hope all this settles down soon, it's driving me nuts.

[Pascal77]

Originally Posted by israle

Yes, I have noticed a strange thing happening with Google at the moment. Google Australia in particular - http://www.google.com.au. At various times of the day the returned results AND rankings change for the same keyword phrase.

One example, if you search for 'Australian Landscape Photography', the returned results will sometimes be around 263,000 and other times 239,000. In the first instance my site ranks in 5th position and the second 7th position. This will change at random during the day.

I have noticed this happening for quite a few different keyphrases.

Further to this, if I click the 'Cached' link below my sites listing it will show my current site in the first instance and a 3 week old version in the second.

Hope all this settles down soon, it's driving me nuts.

exactly the same in Belgium and the Netherlands.
Sometimes on page 1, the other times not even close.
It's a mad house :-)

[Ellio]

Originally Posted by israle

Yes, I have noticed a strange thing happening with Google at the moment. Google Australia in particular - http://www.google.com.au. At various times of the day the returned results AND rankings change for the same keyword phrase.

One example, if you search for 'Australian Landscape Photography', the returned results will sometimes be around 263,000 and other times 239,000. In the first instance my site ranks in 5th position and the second 7th position. This will change at random during the day.

I have noticed this happening for quite a few different keyphrases.

Further to this, if I click the 'Cached' link below my sites listing it will show my current site in the first instance and a 3 week old version in the second.

Hope all this settles down soon, it's driving me nuts.

This is probably the effect of Big Daddy results alternating with Default Google results. Its been happening since late December on Google.co.uk.

Calm down it will be Big Daddy only pretty soon...

[freehits]

yesterday and today I see big daddy quantities with pre-BD rank order on the first page. Thats a first.

BD doubled my search from 2 to 5 million, and moved me from 5 to 1

now back to 5 with 5 million still, all of yesterday and today.

[Weedy Lady]

Yeah.......I used to have 107 million competitors. Now I have 306 million competitors.

[IIxxVADERxxII]

This is what I think:

GOOGLE Vs. MSN

Search google for "site:amazon.com"... Results 1 - 10 of about 170,000,000 from amazon.com

Search MSN for "site:amazon.com"... Page 1 of 293,623 results containing site:amazon.com
10 results per page = Z | 293,623 pages =Y
Z x Y = 2,936,230 listings

GOOGLE: 170,000,000
MSN: 2,936,230

No ONE website in the world deserves 170,000,000 listings. Relevancy is the future of search engines. Not manipulation and unfair spamming practices. KUDOS to MSN!

If you ask me I agree with what others have said in the past. Google is a broke, busted and flawed search engine. MS and YAHOO will eventually decapitate Google. In other words. If you own stock in Google, sell it now and put it in something like ERTS.

[seoimage]

Originally Posted by IIxxVADERxxII

This is what I think:

GOOGLE Vs. MSN

Search google for "site:amazon.com"... Results 1 - 10 of about 170,000,000 from amazon.com

Search MSN for "site:amazon.com"... Page 1 of 293,623 results containing site:amazon.com
10 results per page = Z | 293,623 pages =Y
Z x Y = 2,936,230 listings

GOOGLE: 170,000,000
MSN: 2,936,230

No ONE website in the world deserves 170,000,000 listings. Relevancy is the future of search engines. Not manipulation and unfair spamming practices. KUDOS to MSN!

If you ask me I agree with what others have said in the past. Google is a broke, busted and flawed search engine. MS and YAHOO will eventually decapitate Google. In other words. If you own stock in Google, sell it now and put it in something like ERTS.

Interesting find!

I always thought it had something to do with all the supplemental listings that are still in the index (most are 404s), and the fact that right before Jagger, they were in the "Size Wars" with Yahoo and possibly McDonlads.
:)

Those numbers have been very different since Jagger wrapped up, but very few people noticed it then.

[Cyclops]

Apart from the number of results showing I also notice a huge number of spam type sites have risen to the top in the serps. Even one of my sites has reached the front page from nowhere for a very competitive term...it's not a spam site but is an affiliate rich site.

The relevancy has also gone based on the type of things I have been searching for lately. You have to view a lot of sites to find what you are searching for amongst the Adsense only type sites out there.

[Deliguy]

The last thing I trust on this plant is Google's results count.

[espectations]

I am monitoring my own sites and my SERPS fluctuate with maybe 1 or two positions. No more than that.

Just in one case a customer of mine is not ranking no.1 for a competitive search term anymore. We are working on that.

I decided to focus on what is important - update content and drive qualified targeted traffic. I check the SERPS once a month for reporting purposes but do not try to beat the SE's at their game.

Also noticed the increase in search results though.

[Chatmaster]

In my view Google is playing a publicity game in that the users and the public are under the impression that they are using much bigger datasets. They are trying to impress, thats all. If I had conspiracy theory in mind, I most probably would have thought it was in order to confuse SEO's... lol

The reality is that they are still working with allot smaller data sets than the millions they are displaying for the final SERPs so rankings for most sites should not change as there are no actual change in their algo.

[Gary Golden]

These last few weeks especially I have noticed alot of turmoil with GOOGLE, my saturation levels will go through the roof then back to normal several times but now they seem to have stabilized at a middle ground.

Overall rankings have not change and search engine placement has not changed. This is a good thing since I have expanded my site at least 3 times over the last couple of months.

Additionally visitors to my site have doubled over the last couple of months most of which come from GOOGLE.

I feel the key is to continually optimize your pages and consistently grow to increase your saturation levels within the search engines and thus improve your keyword base.

At least that is my plan!

[incrediblehelp]

Originally Posted by Deliguy

The last thing I trust on this plant is Google's results count.

LOL so true.

[mess486]

All can i say (i'm not an specialist)
but: STRANGE

[Pascal77]

Originally Posted by Cyclops

Apart from the number of results showing I also notice a huge number of spam type sites have risen to the top in the serps. Even one of my sites has reached the front page from nowhere for a very competitive term...it's not a spam site but is an affiliate rich site.

The relevancy has also gone based on the type of things I have been searching for lately. You have to view a lot of sites to find what you are searching for amongst the Adsense only type sites out there.

i see here a lot of affiliatelinks showing up in SERP's.
It's a affiliate link which uses the description and title of the page where you get redirected to.

An example :
http://www.google.nl/search?sourceid...GL:nl&q=sunweb

Sunweb sells travels.
The links with ds1.nl in the beginning are affiliate links.
I see a lot of these links the last weeks. Also from other affiliateprograms who use the normally used "id=..."

Perhaps this is a bug ?

[intelliot]

Why does Google alternate search results? Maybe it's to spread load, but Google has no shortage of computing power. I think the real reason is to do experimentation: to see which results perform better among advertisers, and make Google more money. More money is more relevant, in the eyes of shareholders..