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How frequently are the trilogy sites indexed by search engines?
Are the more popular trilogy sites indexed more frequently than the others?

What I've asked is a search-engine-independent question, but an answer relating only to Google should be sufficient.

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3 Answers 3

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I have experienced posting a question, then searching google immediately after for the core issue of the question and having that question pop up as a result of the search.

So Google may be aware of a question posted within 60 seconds of it being posted. I haven't done any testing to find out if this is always true, but when Jeff has discussed Google bot activity on the site, and how they update the sitemap (ie, it's dynamically generated, and google slurps it at least once a minute, if not more frequently) then it is likely that you may as well assume Google has what amounts to a direct feed for new questions.

However, answers do not receive the same level of attention.

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  • Is this true just for SO, or for the others as well?
    – Jon Seigel
    Jan 25, 2010 at 16:07
  • @Jon - it is true for SU as well, at least. I've tried to search this question superuser.com/questions/100360/… . Exact title finds it, but it's also already on second page for a search as common as "my computer is infected by a virus". I'm impressed by the impact of the SOFU sites :o
    – Gnoupi
    Jan 25, 2010 at 17:03
  • 60 seconds is actually pretty long. See meta.stackexchange.com/a/84701/159916, it could well be below a single second.
    – Pacerier
    Mar 9, 2014 at 14:21
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From Google's point of view, ASAP. Google wants to update their search as often as required to capture changing content... taking into account the popularity of the site. So, a site receiving a new post every few seconds with 10s-of-millions of page views per month?... wicked fast.

I have a big déjà vu moment every time I search Google for information about a question which was just posted moments before and the first Google hit is to that question. Freaky.

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    Proving further that answers on the SOFU sites should never contain "search on Google, dammit, look at what the first result told me" and similar.
    – Gnoupi
    Jan 25, 2010 at 16:29
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I've often seen a question or answer I post ends appearing on google within 15 miniutes or so.

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    I often Google to try to find the answer, and Google already has the question I'm about to answer. Jan 25, 2010 at 16:07

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