KooyeenType "book entitled" site:nytimes.com (exactly that, with quotation marks too)in the search box. Look at the number of results. Now check the other pages (at the bottom, click on 10, and then 19, etc. so as to check the following pages. Then you reach the last page. How many results are there now?
Hi Kooyeen,
I just posted an explanation of what you observed with the number of Google hits in another post --> readed?
Let me post it here again:
Google only gives you the first 1,000 search results for ANY search
keyword. Within the first 1,000 search results, Google eliminates
those pages that are exactly the same and as a result, you most
probably can only get to nine hundred something. You may click the
link at the bottom to perform the search again by including those
duplicated search results, but yet, you can still only get to the
1,000th entry. This has nothing to do with the "inaccuracy" of the
number of Google hits.
There are also other reasons that the
number of Google hits may not match with the actual number of entries
you can see. For example, in some countries, some entries are filtered
out by Google.
I am not saying that the number of Google hits
shown is really accurate. Google has also admitted that it is a rough
estimate. Nobody (including Google) knows how accurate this estimate
is but I think the number is still a useful reference. Treat it as
some sort of first-cut results for further research.
Actually, you don't need to click on page 10, and then 19, etc. to get to the last page. Click page 10, check the URL and you should find "start=90" somewhere in the URL. Insert a "9" before "90" to make it "start=990" and press enter. It gets you directly to the last available page!
Kooyeen No one cares about the number of results. Who searches Google to see
the number of results? No one but some ESL learners. But Google is not
an ESL tool. All the common internet users use Google to find what they
are looking for, and no one cares about the number of results. Isn't it
true? So if Google results are wrong, it's only a problem for
learners... that's why Google doesn't care if the number of results is
correct or not, and will never fix that.
People are using the number of Google hits for all sorts of things that you don't believe. Ever heard of a ring (the kind that you wear on your finger) that checks the number of Google hits of your name everyday and shows it to you? There are scientists who try to use the number of Google hits to determine the relationship between fame and merit of scientists. And Wikipedia also uses "Search Engine Test" as a reference in the process of updating the Wiki entries. See
Wikipedia:Search engine test