API servers

[jlawrence]

Are there different API server like there are different search servers - eg an API server per datacenter ?
The reason I'm asking is I'm seeing different results with different tools.
Keyword tracker is showing less indexed pages than some other API tools.

[crew]

yes. I don't know if it's per datacenter, but results can be different based on location.

[randfish]

Google's API results are so massively inaccurate that it wouldn't be wise to rely on them at all. They almost never show sites in the same position as the actual SERPs, nor do they show the same title and description. They can't even get the number of results to match up.

If you're seeking some kind of accuracy, the API will not help you. Sorry!

[hulkster]

I beg to differ - the results from Shawn's keyword tracker (which uses the Google API) and my own hacked up Perl code (that also uses the API) provides results that are usually darn close to the actual SERP's, especially for those results that are "stable"

Yea, I occasionally see some differences, but since I do this as a hobby, I just mark it down as a bit of randomness that is to be expected - heck, I sometimes have seen the results move when I hit the reload button on the "actual" SERP's.

[jlawrence]

I find the API reasonably good on stable results.
I can't get a site: search to return anywhere near the correct number of results when comapred to a normal search though I'm pretty sure this is mean misunderstanding one of the variables returned.