Google Site Command & Navigational Query Operators Failed Yesterday

Jul 22, 2020 - 7:41 am 2 by
Filed Under Google

Google Search Laptop

Yesterday for a period of a few hours, you may have been unable to find the site or content you were looking for on Google Search. Google said it had an issue with some navigational queries and site commands.

The first issue I spotted was sent to me via @vladrpt at 11:35am ET on July 21, 2020.

The issue was then confirmed by Google at 12:52pm ET:

At 1:39pm ET Vlad said he was seeing things return to normal and then at 3:34pm ET on July 21st, Google confirmed the issue was resolved.

What was the issue? It seems Google was not showing some sites for site commands and also some sites for navigational queries, like their own name.

Here is a screen shot from @CharlieNash that I found via Yelp's @lutherlowe of Breitbart not showing in Google search for its name:

click for full size

He shared others that are right and left leaning websites that also were impacted:

All these sites were showing up fine after Google confirmed it fixed the issue.

Luther Lowe was quick to point out the flat saying:

But it was not just right or left leaning sites, it was those in the middle.

Google refuted the claim of Google removing content over political ideologies. Google said "contrary to some speculation, this did not target particular sites or political ideologies. Today's issue affected sites representing a range of content and different viewpoints. Our ranking systems don't index, rank or classify content based on political lean, as we’ve explained in our How Search Works site.

But wow - outside of any political speculation - Google had issues with site commands and navigational queries for a few hours yesterday. What is going on?

Forum discussion at Twitter.

 

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