[utopman]

I searched last result page on a google search with 1M results announced. On page 20 or so it is shown "display more results" then I clicked it and it still shows 1M results or so. Then I go to last page and it is only on page 40 with few hundreed results in the end.

I guess google knows this and I wonder what is the intention to display 1M result available and let users reach so few in reality. Is it commercial argument ? I hardly belive this is an error. Does it reveal how maybe very fewer data google indexes / retains to keep result efficiency ? Does it reveal some sort of data management / algorithm mechanics from their search engine ?

[smoldesu]

Google does not show every result for "Hacker News" in their search page, only the most relevant ones. Google's APIs are capable of such a comprehensive search, but by default they won't serve you all billion-some results.