The guardian reported a scandalous thing that Google was doing..
JackSchofield said :
Well, is there anything wrong with that? Not really, but I can be picky. First, the suggestion that the top story (Gizmodo) was found 51 minutes ago is impressive but not necessarily true. I did the same search two hours later and Google found the same story, but said it was found “13 minutes ago”. OK, maybe it’s a different Google index, but the times vary so it might as well be a random number.
wow, but wait a minute You screen shot the first one at 51 minutes, but didn’t both to screen shot the one that validates the story then JackSchofield said :
As for the claim that Google “found” about 16 million results in 0.11 seconds, or whatever, I’m sure that impressed us for a while. But when it’s obviously not true, guys, and you know it’s not true, that just undermines your credibility…..
But Jack google says “Results 1 - 10 of about 287,000,000 for keyword. (0.12 seconds)” it’s you that’s Implying that google had a quick peak at millions of pages and returned the 10 most relevant ones in 0.12 seconds
and then in the comments
Well, yes, I know that. The point I’m making is that Google is reporting numbers in ways that don’t mean anything to — or are misleading — ordinary users.
Hey Jack I don’t think ordinary users actually look at those numbers, and on the time found and you have backed this up, I can’t replicate you test/errror.
DaveN
read the whole story here http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/01/02/isnt_google_wonderful.html
7 Comments
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3rd January 2008 @ 18:50
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oops .. guardian your right
3rd January 2008 @ 19:08
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What bugs me is when I read journos saying “there are 51 million websites all about paris hilton” because of those numbers - no there aren’t! At least he didn’t use the word “hits” in his article
3rd January 2008 @ 19:27
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Goog job to call them out on that. I know it was on a blog but the Guardian should be more careful.
4th January 2008 @ 01:56
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Too many journos seem to follow this rule:
“”Never let the facts get in the way of a good story.”"
4th January 2008 @ 18:44
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Dave, what does this have to do with the REDFLY?
4th January 2008 @ 20:39
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[...] Word of SEM Experts’ (blogs) I Admire Dave Naylor (Daven) says “We all know Google doesn’t know how to count” and he’s right, Debra Mastaler wants Google to use its official communication [...]
5th January 2008 @ 22:10
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Minor point Dave, but you say the Torygraph reported it, but the report is on the Guardian.