Google is currently facing a significant problem that’s hindering the indexing of new content in search results. This issue was noticed earlier today and is particularly noticeable when using the ‘Past hour’ search filter.
UPDATE: Google has announced that the issue has been resolved.
Earlier reports indicated that Google had stopped indexing certain content for a period of time. This was first observed with specific pages but appeared to be a widespread issue. Users reached out to confirm the situation and shared visuals as evidence.
Google has confirmed the indexing problems and stated that they will provide more information as soon as it becomes available. Their statement reads:
“We’re currently experiencing indexing issues that may cause stale search results in some cases. We’ll update this thread when we can provide more information.”
These indexing issues are quite significant, though fortunately, the entire index hasn’t vanished. It’s noteworthy that this isn’t an isolated incident; Google has faced multiple indexing problems recently. Last month, an indexing error led to numerous pages being deindexed, and around that same time, another issue affected the indexed pages report. Resolving that error took over two weeks, and the data from that period is now unusable.
With multiple errors occurring simultaneously, there are speculations about whether these are symptoms of a more substantial underlying issue. My colleague Roger Montti suggests that these problems might be the growing pains of Google undergoing an infrastructure update.
There is also concern about the time Google takes to address these errors. When a critical problem such as the failure to index new content arises, it’s essential to trust that Google can resolve it promptly. However, based on Google’s recent history, this issue could persist for several days.
I will continue to monitor this situation closely and will update this post once the issue is resolved or more information becomes available.
