Exploring Google's story: How breaches can affect web indexing and crawling

Article image Exploring Google's story: How breaches can affect web indexing and crawling
Article image Exploring Google's story: How breaches can affect web indexing and crawling
Publication date:22.12.2025
Blog category: Web Technology News

Google's reporting of serious technical problems affecting the indexing and crawling of web pages is often due to the fact that they affect a significant number of users. Unless such problems affect a large number of users, Google generally does not make them known.

"For example, there was an incident recently where some images weren't showing. If I remember correctly, I stepped in and said that this is nonsense and we shouldn't announce it because the impact on users isn't really that big."

🚀 For example, when there was an indexing issue in February 2024, Google used automated processes to detect and resolve the issue. Automated processes include things like software monitoring and automatically determining when a problem reaches a certain level of importance that requires human intervention.

  • 📌 Google has a high "uptime", which means it rarely crashes or becomes unavailable.
  • 📌 If the incident affects users, it automatically receives a higher priority level.
  • 📌 Google doesn't make every little incident known, because most of them are not visible to users.

Q: What is an incident in the context of Google Search?

A: An incident is any event that affects how Google Search works, such as when there is a problem with indexing or crawling web pages.

Q: How does Google determine whether an incident should be reported?

A: Google determines whether to report an incident using a number of criteria, including the number of users affected and the extent to which Google Search is affected.

Q: Why doesn't Google report all incidents?

A: Google does not report all incidents because most of them are not visible to users. If an incident doesn't affect a large number of users, Google generally doesn't make it public.

🧩 Summary: Google uses a number of criteria to determine whether or not to report incidents affecting the indexing and crawling of web pages. These criteria include the number of users affected and the extent to which Google Search is affected. Google has a high "uptime", which means it rarely crashes or becomes unavailable.
🧠 My thoughts: As a web developer, I think this information is very important to understand how Google manages incidents and how it can affect our work. It is always important to know how your site can be affected and what actions Google can take in different situations.