[Web4lib] Google limit of 1,000 results - end of the web?

[Eric Hellman]

In principle and in theory, we CANNOT know about every webpage that "exists".

Infinite web page spaces are easy to create and 
numerous on the web; start with the imaginary 
calculator service:
http://calculator.example.org/1+2=

and you know about Gödel..

I suppose this is important if a touch 
existential. I don't think we don't know enough 
about how Google is constructed to say whether or 
not the set of all possible google hits at any 
one time is well defined or even if it is really 
finite (N billion) or not.

Eric

At 2:16 PM +0200 7/18/05, bernhard Eversberg wrote:
>Lars Aronsson asked:
>>
>>Can we define the end of the web, i.e. can we 
>>have knowledge about every webpage that exists?
>
>In principle and in theory, yes. Practically, 
>however, no one has the storage space nor the 
>bandwidth or processing power to crawl into all 
>the remotest corners and look at "everything" to 
>find if it's relevant. And if that wasn't the 
>case, then we'd lack the time, almost always, to 
>look at everything that *is* probably relevant. 
>And the odds are deteriorating all the time that 
>this might change - for stuff explodes all the 
>time all around us while our time's running out. 
>So, not being able to know "every webpage that 
>exists" means we can never be sure


-- 

Eric Hellman, President                            Openly Informatics, Inc.
eric at openly.com                                    2 Broad St., 2nd Floor
tel 1-973-509-7800 fax 1-734-468-6216              Bloomfield, NJ 07003
http://www.openly.com/1cate/      1 Click Access To Everything