Google Unlocks 700 Million Posts In Search Bug Fix

Wired reports Google has fixed a year old bug where 700 million posts within a Usenet group were unsearchable via Google Groups. Google fixed this bug after Wired called them out for the blunder.

Google sent Wired a response that read:

It turns out there was a bug, a specific bug, that affected search within a specific group. That bug is something we’re working on fixing, and I think that will be fixed by tomorrow. Thanks for writing this, because that’s how we discovered this specific bug.

Wired confirmed the fix is actually working, but there are still some issues with searching by date ranges. Google acknowledged that issue and said they are working on a fix. Why did it take Google over a year to fix the issue? Supposedly, Wired embarrassed them into fixing it. All it took was a day of some engineering time to get it done. Wired did note that Slashdot wrote about the issue 11 months ago.

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Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry can be followed on social media at @rustybrick, +BarrySchwartz and Facebook. For more background information on Barry, see his full bio and disclosures, click over here.