Developer retracts claim that articles index in publication order after broader test
A developer on DEV Community has published a correction after expanding their Google indexation test from 5 to 24 articles, finding that publication age does not determine the order in which pages get indexed. The original claim — that articles were indexed oldest-first with a one-to-two-day delay — was based on a small sample that turned out to be coincidental. Further testing revealed that indexation is not permanent, with pages disappearing from and reappearing in search results between readings taken just three days apart. The developer confirmed their measurement tool was stable by rerunning the same test 20 minutes later with zero changes across all 24 results, ruling out instrument noise as the cause. The key takeaway is that a single indexation reading should not be treated as a settled fact, as results can invert within days for reasons outside a publisher's control.
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