Steve Bennett wrote:
I know we're all a fan of Googlecounting
results. But this is weird:
When I search for a term in Firefox's Google box, the result count is
exactly 200% what it should be.
1. Search for "Wikipedia is great" in the FireFox search box.
2. Mostly (but not always), Google reports 29,600 matches.
3. Repeat the search just by pressing Google's "Search" button.
4. Google reports 14,800 matches.
It's because every search request is routed to a randomly-selected
Google server farm. Some of those farms may be running on the newest
index, while some may still be waiting for the latest index update. This
effect is not unique to the search query you entered; lots of people
keep noticing it and wondering about it. I'm pretty sure there is an
entry about it in one of Google's many FAQs, but I couldn't find it.
Turns out the proper term is "Google Dance", and googling for that gives
us an interesting blog entry.