Search Engine Optimisation, Promotion and Internet Marketing

Report claims web is 11.5bn pages

18 May 2005

A new paper estimates the size of the web at 11.5 billion pages or more.

As of January 2005, the indexable web is more than 11.5 billion pages, and growing, according to Antonio Gulli of Universita di Pisa and Alessio Signorinialso of the University of Iowa.

Mr Gulli, who is also the director of advanced products for Ask Jeeves, claims that the leading search engines underestimate their own coverage area.

The report states that Google actually covers around 8.8 billion pages, though the search giant claims it covers a more modest 8.1 billion, at a coverage rate of 76.2 per cent. The two academics' abstracts also indicate that, while Yahoo! estimates coverage of 4.2 billion, it is now closer to eight billion, or a 69.3 per cent coverage area.

MSN estimates that it covers five billion pages, but the study shows 7.1 billion or 61.9 per cent, while Ask Jeeves/Teoma estimates 2.5 billion covered, while the study suggests 6.6 billion, or 57.6 per cent. The indexed web is about 9.4 billion pages or 81.4 per cent, the study shows.

However, the abstract only covers the accessible pages search engines can find and there are billions of pages in various systems that search engines have not yet grabbed. According to Search Engine Watch, some estimates place the actual size of the web at over 500 billion pages.

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