Google triples search index, but quits the numbers game

I suggested previously that it might take Google some time to have a bigger index than Yahoo... Recently Yahoo said theirs was 19.2 billion pages, whereas Google's was only 8 billion.

Now Google says theirs is 3 times bigger than before, but at the same time they say they will no longer quote numbers, but would prefer searchers to "evaluate for themselves by testing relatively obscure search terms that produce less than 1,000 results. This is where tripling the depth of Google's search database is most useful..."

I think as a user I'd just like to know the numbers!

The size war is over (unless MSN and AJ join in), with Google throwing in the towel.