Why does google display only 1000 results per search?

[pluto2]

Let's say you have a search with 5.42 million results, why does Google display only 1000 results? Would it require more space on their servers to display all the results? What other resources would it require to display all the results?

[Asguard]

umm why would you want it to?

It uses up YOUR resorces, as well as being unmanageable AND the probablitly is that what you want is in the first 1000

[Steve100]

You would want it to because what you are searching for may not be in the first 1000.

Not a clue why they do it, I didn't even realise they did.

[Read-Only]

You would want it to because what you are searching for may not be in the first 1000.

Not a clue why they do it, I didn't even realise they did.

Mercy! If it's not in the first 1k then it's likely not in any of them. In any event, if you don't see what you want in the first page or two, the thing to do is used the "advanced search feature" or "search within these results."

Either way, it will CONSIDERABLY narrow down what you have to look at/through.

(I get the strong feeling that there are two people in this thread that really don't know how to best use the power of Google.)

[Steve100]

Nah, I usually get my result on the first page.
But it would be gutting if the site you were searching for was 1001st on the list.

[Asguard]

how many times do you even go through all the results it displays?

[Read-Only]

Nah, I usually get my result on the first page.
But it would be gutting if the site you were searching for was 1001st on the list.

Actually, I think it would be a pretty week Google user who's target was THAT far down. I still say that such a person needs to spend a little time learning how to use it. After playing with it for the first month, what I want always show up in the top five or not at all. (Not just everthing is there.)

[Steve100]

how many times do you even go through all the results it displays?

Use your detective powers to work it out.

Actually, I think it would be a pretty week Google user who's target was THAT far down. I still say that such a person needs to spend a little time learning how to use it. After playing with it for the first month, what I want always show up in the top five or not at all. (Not just everthing is there.)

Yes, but such people and queries probably do exist.

[Read-Only]

Yes, but such people and queries probably do exist.

Sure - but that's NOT Google's fault. And the OP is in the line of why does Google do what it does - and the responsibility for that belongs squarely on the user!

)If you're trying to use a knife as a screwdrive and the blade breaks, don't blame it on the knife!!!)

[Steve100]

Of course.
But it would be nice to help out the idiots.

Maybe after clicking on the 10th page of results it should pop up a tutorial "google for dummies"

[Stryder]

As stated 1000 entire's is a lot of database accesses in itself along with the Caching of pages. Google's "1000" though is more adaptive now than it use to be, some years back most search engines would be using 6 month old caches to work out the rankings, nowadays google's bots tend to keep on top of a sites progress.

Obviously sites that have constant changing content will be spidered more often than those that are "Unmodified", at the end of the day though this is really down on the web developers to work out how to be more Search Engine Optimized (SEO). Of course these methods are constantly being abused by people that create sites that have their own search engines that just return results taken from Google already to attempt to boost their rank (which in turn get's it dropped from the search engines completely)

The 1000 you see is based upon it's content (Frequency of word use, perhaps even a breakdown of language syntax), It's domain name, it's incoming links from other sites that are spidered, whether it pays to advertise or not etc. the first 1000 are suppose to be the "Consensus" of search engine returns, so those lower down the listing are less likely to have the material people require.

[Nonsense]

If you don't find what you are looking for within the first 20 results your query is not polished enough. Google is very sensitive to the slightest word changes. In addition i would wager that majority of people don't use Google maximum potential.