Does Size Still Matter in Search?
Posted on September 29, 2005
Earthtimes.org reports that Google claims its index is three times larger than its competitors like Yahoo. However, Google will no longer display the size of its index on its homepage -- instead they are asking users to search and decide for themselves which search tool is best based on the search results they get.
"We believe that we have an index that is three times larger (without counting duplicate pages). We are asking our readers to test for themselves," said Google spokesperson Marissa Mayer. The company is celebrating its seventh anniversary this September.Earthwatch.org also reported statements from Yahoo and MSN that indicate that quality is becoming more important the size. With demand for more up-to-date information from web surfers timeliness of the web content found in search results may become more important as well.Earlier, Google had claimed to search 8 billion pages. To be one up, Yahoo, in August, went to town that its search database covered 19.2 billion Web pages. Google rebutted this claim with the contention that its best experts and a number of other independent experts could not replicate this and so Yahoo's assertion smacked of pumped up figures.
But this time round, Mayers refused to put a number to the revised search database. "Absolute numbers are no longer useful," she said.
