Google Banned On...Google?

[Everyman]

I was monitoring my link bomb, and about to post a thread, but then while trying to confirm what I was about to post, I noticed that the reason for everything dropping to zero was that all of Google's pages from their .com TLD are missing from the index!

try site:www.google.com

And try searching for "google" -- the first few results are normally from their own www.google.com site. Other TLDs for Google are still showing up with the site command.

Does anyone else see this?

[NFFC]

Confirmed.

Also for http://www.google.com/search?&q=www.google.com I get;

Web
Tip: Try Google Answers for help from expert researchers

Sorry, no information is available for the URL www.google.com

* Find web pages that contain the term "www.google.com"

Maybe somebody has taken the pre-ipo "quiet period" too literally.

[Joseph Morin]

I'm showing www.google.com with a PR0

[rustybrick]

I see it as well. PR 0.

[Joseph Morin]

A search on Google for "search engine" doesn't return Google within the first 100 results.

[Everyman]

<sarcasm>Maybe their spam filters are finally working properly.</sarcasm>

[NFFC]

>Maybe their spam filters are finally working properly.

Or.

Do never test the over 50's geek.

"Reid is Director of Operations at Google, Inc where he is responsible for the growth and stability of Google's internet website."

[rustybrick]

I posted some screen shots, just in case someone thinks we are making it, up over here.

[Everyman]

Or ... maybe it's time to review what happened last month. On June 22, the New York Times reported this:

___________

"Separately, there was an indication yesterday that Google's vaunted corporate culture may be under stress as a result of competition and the stock offering. As of yesterday afternoon, typing the words 'out of touch management' into Google caused the search engine to list as its first result a page describing the company's top management.

"A person close to the company said that Google employees had engaged in the practice of 'Google bombing.' A Google bomb is an attempt by a group of people to cause a particular Web page to become the first result for a search phrase. The Google spokeswoman declined to comment."

___________

This piece was by Saul Hansell and John Markoff. When Markoff called me the next day, I convinced him that his source was mistaken, and that the "management" bomb was collateral damage to my "executives" bomb (which I'm still sure it was). The NYT printed a correction on June 25. Markoff, like any reporter, isn't going to reveal his source to me, so that's all I know about it.

But maybe there really is something going on inside of the Googleplex!

[rustybrick]

This kind of reminds me of the Huge Bug in Google - Microsoft.com Missing! story.

[bhartzer]

Yes, it's true. I'm seeing a PR0 on www.google.com and absolutely no pages indexed using the site: command. Weird.

[dannysullivan]

Wow -- Google banned on Google (FYI, changed this thread title to that to help stress the change -- hope you don't mind, Everyman).

Seems to be only for the .com site. I can find pages listed for some others, like .co.uk.

[Chris Sherman]

Originally Posted by dannysullivan

Wow -- Google banned on Google.

Hmmn... perhaps Googlebot tried to crawl Google.com earlier this week when MyDoom was causing the site to be unavailable. Google gives that as a reason for sites disappearing in their webmaster FAQ...

[rcjordan]

>perhaps Googlebot tried to crawl Google.com earlier this week when MyDoom

Nah! Duplicate anchor text got 'em.

[NFFC]

>Hmmn... perhaps Googlebot tried to crawl Google.com earlier this week when MyDoom was causing the site to be unavailable

So... quite possibly the most important site on the internet had a flakey connection for a few hours. Site tried to spider itself and failed and decided to drop all its pages?

You crazier than a SEMPO circle member

>Duplicate anchor text got 'em.

Told ya.

[Joseph Morin]

Maybe they linked to a bad neighborhood

[rustybrick]

But really, this is really similar to what happened to Microsoft and Adobe back on May 13th.

[Nacho]

Originally Posted by Chris Sherman

Hmmn... perhaps Googlebot tried to crawl Google.com earlier this week when MyDoom was causing the site to be unavailable. Google gives that as a reason for sites disappearing in their webmaster FAQ...

I'm sure there are going to many new learning experiences from this and a BIG news coverage.

All confirmed Everyman & Joseph.

[Everyman]

Some headlines you can expect from the media if they get an answer from Google about this:

Google generously foregoes own rankings to "give something back" to the public

Google kills vicious virus by sacrificing their rankings

Google generously defuses vicious Google bomb by starving it

Google enters its quiet period by exceeding SEC requirements

Public-spirited Google displays commendable modesty

Google technician lashes out over his lack of stock options

Microsoft removes Google from Google's index

Google public relations shows its famous low profile

Google demonstrates what will happen to spammers

Google develops new technology that allows instant index modifications

Google ethics committee makes its first decision

[Everyman]

I think they just came back. Only nine hours later.