API vs search results

[Runawayrentals]

Just wondering how the google API can tell me a site is ranked #10 and at EVERY single datacenter the site isnt listed in the top 50 (farthest I looked). Anyone ever seen anything like this? Just very weird as I have never seen anything like this, and really doesnt make sense, how the API can have 1 set of results and the serach engines have a totally different set of results....

worrysome at the elast as on all my search terms atm so I am fine in API and gone in datacenters...

[ronniethedodger]

I am not privy to any of that information, and probably not too many people are.

I might suggest that you ask that from people who use it on a frequent basis at the Google API forum itself at http://groups.google.com/groups?group=google.public.web-apis.

But if I were to hazard a guess, it may be that the API is returning results before it goes through the filter that everyone is talking about now.

You mentioned that all of the datacenters were reporting identical results. I have found differences in the datacenters myself, on one or two keyterms. These differences remained for several days and never seemed to sync up during that time.

Try that forum I mentioned and let me know what you come up with. Please post a follow up here if you don't mind. I for one would like to know if the API is indeed reporting non-filtered results...for eductational purposes, mind you. ;-)

[minstrel]

You mentioned that all of the datacenters were reporting identical results. I have found differences in the datacenters myself, on one or two keyterms. These differences remained for several days and never seemed to sync up during that time.
That's been my experience too, including over the past few days, and common lore has it that, when the datacenters are not synchronized, this is an indication that Google is (still) making changes...

[ronniethedodger]

[quote="minstrelThat's been my experience too, including over the past few days, and common lore has it that, when the datacenters are not synchronized, this is an indication that Google is (still) making changes...[/quote]

One would say that. What I have seen is that some sync up, and others are not. It is a little more unusual this time around...and happening a lot more frequently. There is a lot of activity going on.

[Runawayrentals]

ronniethedodger....

Actually no where in my message did I say all the datacenters were showing exact results, I said "All datacenters no longer show this site as #10 as the API shows.

As far as all the datacenters, I havent seen them all have identical results in months.

[Runawayrentals]

Ok, API is showing same as results... BUT .... I am now totally unimpressed with google, I HOPE MS comes and knocks the crap outta them and their IPO crashes.

Back in October I decided to implement a new domain name, did everything google says to do. The new domain was picked up, new links were picked up dmoz link was changed etc... Google never implemented the new domain on ANY of the main keywords that the previous domain were in... finally earlier this month I took the redirect off and the old domain almost immediately appeared back in teh engine in the spots it previously was. Now this update that started yesterday or there about, has all but dropped my old domain from the main keywords.

BTW 3 major updates had happened between new domain and now... I have had enough.

Thank god yahoo wont be utilizing google as much in the coming year, thank god MS (which I hate to admit) is coming out in the SE world. Maybe a serious kick in the butt for google is what is needed for them to not only get off the high and mighty act, but to get their index back on track.

Over the past year or so I have implemented new domain names and NEVER had the problems I have had with this one.

Its all not over but how unimpressed do people have to get with a company so worried about an IPO, that they all but wreck their business?

Good luck

[ronniethedodger]

Back in October I decided to implement a new domain name, did everything google says to do. The new domain was picked up, new links were picked up dmoz link was changed etc... Google never implemented the new domain on ANY of the main keywords that the previous domain were in... finally earlier this month I took the redirect off and the old domain almost immediately appeared back in teh engine in the spots it previously was. Now this update that started yesterday or there about, has all but dropped my old domain from the main keywords.


The same thing happened to us. Without getting into why we did what we did, this is what took place back in April of this year.

We changed our base name to .net and redirected the .com domain to our Yahoo secure store. The .net domain took over at the same hosting service on the same IP address that the old .com domain resided at.

Google comes in -- lickety split in no time at all and crawls the new .net site. Looking back in retrospect now, this was very quick. It was almost overnight.

And almost immediately after the indexing by Google, my results start showing up. At that time, I thought I was a fricking guru of the web to have this happen as quick as it did.....but one problem.

Upon closer inspection of the results, they all had the .com extension on the domain name. Here are brand new pages showing up at Google with the wrong Url on them. These pages never, ever existed on the old .com domain before.

Google was crawling the site...the logs verify that. Google was indexing the site pages...the results verify that with the new page titles and exerpts from it's content. But Google lists the Url of the page with the old .com extension.

So what is up? My only theory (and it is a plausible one) is that Google does not crawl by domain name, it crawls by IP address. It later matches that IP address up with it's own internal DNS database (does not rely on external services -- this cuts down on more server burden and reduces the time in producing it's results). Prior to displaying the results, it matches the IP, grabs the name, then substitutes it in it's place. In my case, the .com was still listed for the new .net IP address in Google's database.

It took three months before I actually saw .net in the Google results....three long months. I had started sending Google frequent emails about 2 months of not seeing any corrections (this in retrospect was a bad mistake to wait that long). Shortly after about my third mail it changed at Google -- I now give the birthdate of .net officially on July 24th. By this time, the site had quite a few more (a lot of em) pages added and this sucker came out full grown.

Now I do not know if you have been in contact, or even as much as inquired about your problem. It seems to me that 3 months for you now is quite a long time to wait -- it should have worked itself out by now. My suggestion is that you do shoot them off a letter and explain your situation....the sooner the better.

[Runawayrentals]

Honestly... I have no ambition to deal with it, I have moved EVERYTHING back tot he original domain, directed the "new domain" back to the original, had dmoz change my link back to the original, which google has already updated and shows that, which was only done a couple days ago, quick I say!

My google results right now are near total CRAP, but will expect that for the next month, oh well. Time to get back to work on true optimization and fortget all about this new domain theory. It is sad what has happend.

Google KING! .... the king might just dethrown himself.

[ronniethedodger]

Honestly... I have no ambition to deal with it, I have moved EVERYTHING back tot he original domain, directed the "new domain" back to the original, had dmoz change my link back to the original, which google has already updated and shows that, which was only done a couple days ago, quick I say!

My google results right now are near total CRAP, but will expect that for the next month, oh well. Time to get back to work on true optimization and fortget all about this new domain theory. It is sad what has happend.


My prediction is that is will not take longer than a month. By the time you read this, it may have already corrected itself or it will do so within the next couple of days.

And out of curiosity, and this is for my own reference, how many websites are being hosted on the same IP address as yours? Is it more than one?

[Runawayrentals]

Actually it is my server with 2 IP's, and there are 3 web sites running on the server, 2 of which are on the same IP and 1 on a different IP.

Am getting ready to replace this server with a new one, with 5 IP's, 3 sites to 3 IP's and then 2 other IP's will be used for some hosting services.

Co-located servers.

[ronniethedodger]

Actually it is my server with 2 IP's, and there are 3 web sites running on the server, 2 of which are on the same IP and 1 on a different IP.

Am getting ready to replace this server with a new one, with 5 IP's, 3 sites to 3 IP's and then 2 other IP's will be used for some hosting services.

Co-located servers.

Thanks for the info.

I hope things turn around for you here shortly.

When I first read you post...I had gone over to Google to look up info on the API (actually the lack of info..hehehehe)

But I noticed that they allow 1000 requests per day. A while back ...oh maybe a few months ago...I was looking at it then, and was under the impression that they only allowed that many requests per month and not per day.

Did Google increase that recently? Or has it always been 1000 per day (as best you know)?

[Runawayrentals]

I have used it for quite some time and as far as I know its been 1000 a day, but then again I use it for about 30 requests a day, so either way I would have never hit the 1000 mark :)

API is quite handy, a ocuple places offer free access for it, I use it for keyword/link tracking. It is the only true way to get that info without making google mad, as they hate people pulling results form search results.

[amabaie]

The 1000 requests covers, I beleive, each page of 10 results. So if the API is used to drill 10 pages deep into the results, you hae used 10 requests. At least, that is how it was explained to me just before I signed up for it.

This might seem like a bit of a newbie question, but how does one use the API to check positioning on the engine? Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks.

[Runawayrentals]

Ron... I did send an email to google, I have never done so but I will see if it will be worth while or a waste of time. I am in hope that it might help get me back on track.

amabaie... www.digitalpoint.com offers free use of some tools including keyword and back link tracker, which uses the API. It is awesome!

[ronniethedodger]

Ron... I did send an email to google, I have never done so but I will see if it will be worth while or a waste of time. I am in hope that it might help get me back on track.

Cool !!! Don't be surprised if you never get a response from them though. I have yet to get one myself (there auto-responder mail does not count).

But I would hit them up once a week....on Wednesdays. This day should be a good one, cuz I am sure that Monday is heavy, and Tuesday it is winding down. More chance of being noticed on Wednesday and getting your point across.

You have to realize that Google probably gets hundreds, if not thousands, of these all the time on a daily basis -- among other things. Patience is a virtue.

Glad to see that you are calmed down too !!! Does wonders for the blood pressure. ;-)

[Runawayrentals]

Ron... oh I bet google gets 1000's of emails per week, this is why I never wasted my time emailing them in the past, and why I doubt it will do much good now. I just thought I would humor myself emailing them this time.

I still do hope MSN and or Yahoo knocks google off its high horse. If nothing else it might get them to have good results again.