Realtor Websites - Real Web Results Blog

As I am writing this Google is in the middle of scrambling their index once again - some have called it an “update” although I would not agree that anything at all has been actually updated. You need to see an improvement in search results in order to call it an update in my view.

The folks over at Webmaster World began giving Google updates a name a few years ago and called this one “Allegra”. This is the first “update” in about a year to receive that honor if my memory serves me correctly.

This change in Google is receiving nearly as much attention in various search engine forums as the Florida Update did in 2003 - and that says a lot! Alas, the attention is not good however. Some webmasters are lining up and threatening to quit the business much the same way as stockbrokers leaped out of windows in the Great Depression!

Other webmasters are sorry they ever promoted the virtues of Google Search to their friends, family, and customers - and are thankful that there is a new player on the block - MSN Search - to help generate traffic for their customers.

Some are describing Google’s search results as a “Total System Failure” while a few other webmasters are happy because their website is finally showing up in the search results after months of absence. Those that are happy are the minority however.

The biggest complaints are the total loss of sites and sites that are in the index but do not show up for any searches - even the company name - while other unrelated sites show up instead for their company name.

What I can say is that Google has never been so unpredictable. After they made their big change with the Florida Update back in ‘03 they settled down and were quite predictable until the update that began December 15, 2004. Because Google had been so predictable in the past most Google watchers considered it a hiccup that would be fixed next update. Especially since there were identifiable problems such as a broken “cache:” command, so many missing sites, and an absence of spider activity.

That brings us to the current Allegra update and so far it does not look like things are going to be fixed - it looks like a continuation with even more sites gone from the index for no reason at all. Right now Google has at least two distinct indexes in their data centers that have not yet been merged so once that happens the index that you are seeing will change again. Neither of those indexes seem to be complete however so I am not holding out much hope for an improvement unless they start adding back in sites they dropped and new sites they have been ignoring.

For now, I guess all we can do is sit and watch.

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