In response to Google’s release today, SVP/Search Jeff Weiner told me: “We are extremely confident our index size is highly competitive.” My read on that statement is that when Yahoo unwraps its new search technology, the index will be at least 6 billion strong, if not larger.
Weiner took pains to add that “comprehensiveness” – ie big indexes – is only one piece of the total search quality puzzle. While the arms race to the largest index is something of a perception game, it’s an important one nevertheless. It’s inescapable: size does matter.