Google’s search engine experienced a significant service disruption on Thursday, resulting in delays for new content to appear in search results. This incident affected various major news outlets and other sources that regularly publish timely content, causing inconvenience for both publishers and users.
The disruption began at approximately 2 a.m. GMT+8 on June 21 and lasted for over 10 hours, concluding early Friday afternoon. During this period, users attempting to find the latest information through Google Search encountered difficulties, as new content was not being indexed and displayed promptly. This issue was particularly noticeable when refining searches to display content published within the last hour.
Google addressed the issue on their Search status dashboard, stating that they had identified and resolved the problem. Despite the fix, some sites may still experience delays in indexing until the affected URLs are fully reprocessed. Google’s statement indicated that no further updates would be provided.
This is not the first time Google Search has encountered indexing problems. Similar disruptions have been reported in the past, with notable incidents occurring in October, December of last year, and February of this year.
While the disruptions may only affect some users, such incidents pose a concern for those reliant on Google Search for breaking news, safety information, or other time-sensitive data in emergency situations. It is possible, however, to explore the web using search engine alternatives, like Brave or DuckDuckGo, to see what else is out there.