If you search for [bbc news] and some other queries on Google Search you might run into a weird bug with Google’s pagination. Scroll down to the footer where you can go to the next page of results (like anyone does that) and you will see only a few pages, when there should be probably countless pages.
This was spotted first by Andy Beard on Twitter and I can replicate – but he saw two pages, I see three, here is my screenshot followed by his:
Is this new?
Yeah I know I have a multi-year gap in my observations, but I didn’t stop Googling…
[BBC News] = millions of pages and references
Only 2 pages of actual results
Can’t repeat it for [CNN News]
Just a quirk?
CC: @rustybrick @brodieseo @glenngabe pic.twitter.com/1M2e7aFb6b
— Andy Beard (@AndyBeard) September 14, 2021
Danny Sullivan from Google has reported it and said on Twitter still checking in this but yes, I imagine it’s a weird bug.”
I was off yesterday so still checking in this but yes, I imagine it’s a weird bug.
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) September 15, 2021
So Google is investigating. We’ve seen weird bugs like this before and it is always fun to find one offs with Google Search.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
