[LINK] Email Obfuscation Helps Spammers: Google returns 27 million results for "* at * dot com"

[Kim Holburn]

On 2007/Jun/18, at 7:27 AM, Karl Auer wrote:

>> I have google set to show 50 results per page.  It says there are
>> 394,000 pages and I assume each with 50 hits, the last page may of
>> course have less than 50.  That's why I did the multiply.  That is
>> right isn't it?
>
> The "number of pages" refers to the number of pages it found that
> matched your search terms. It doesn't refer to the number of pages of
> results.
>
> Do a search on something that will have only a few hits to see what I
> mean. Or change your results-per-page value and repeat your search.

I do this search '"at*dot*au" telephone chapman'
and get:

http://www.google.com/search?num=50&hl=en&safe=off&q=%22at*dot*au%22 
+telephone+chapman&btnG=Search
Personalized Results 1 - 50 of about 4,170 English pages for  
"at*dot*au" telephone chapman. (0.51 seconds)
clicking page 2 (of 2) gives me:

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22at*dot*au%22+telephone 
+chapman&num=50&hl=en&safe=off&pwst=1&start=50&sa=N
Personalized Results 51 - 56 of 56 English pages for "at*dot*au"  
telephone chapman. (0.06 seconds)

and clicking on the show omitted results gives me:
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22at*dot*au%22+telephone 
+chapman&num=50&hl=en&safe=off&pwst=1&filter=0
Personalized Results 1 - 50 of about 3,920 English pages for  
"at*dot*au" telephone chapman. (0.33 seconds)

and clicking through to the last page (page 3 of 3) gives me:
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22at*dot*au%22+telephone 
+chapman&num=50&hl=en&safe=off&pwst=1&start=100&sa=N&filter=0
Personalized Results 101 - 131 of 131 English pages for "at*dot*au"  
telephone chapman. (0.11 seconds)

Is this in any way consistent?  It does seem the the number is the  
number of "page hits" although the wording isn't clear to me but why  
do pages on the same search give wildly different numbers of hits?

Now I am doubting the numbers google give out bear any resemblance to  
anything.


--
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
Ph: +39 06 855 4294  M: +39 3494957443
mailto:kim at holburn.net  aim://kimholburn
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Democracy imposed from without is the severest form of tyranny.
                           -- Lloyd Biggle, Jr. Analog, Apr 1961