SharePoint 2010 Search result count - inconsistent.

Question

Hi

It looks like after the 10th page in the search result, SharePoint returns lesser result count than the first page.For example, searching for a string gives 1,300 hits but, mysteriously, after page 10, the display at the top of the page changes the total number of hits to 649 and says “91-100 of about 649 results”.

I know this have been discussed in a few threads for MOSS 2007, but I wanted to get some confirmation or related article from Microsoft explaining this behavior. From what I found after researching:

It's very difficult for any search engine to get the exact number of total results found, as this is a very time consuming and resource intensive process. So, most search engines (including SharePoint) perform only an "estimate" to provide total number of results. Hence, the value of TotalRows property can change for the same keyword. The value is more accurate when the StartRow is towards the end of search results.

There's a trade-off between accuracy and performance.  For smaller result sizes, the number is accurate.  If we were writing our own search application, we would use the search object model to submit searches. Here we can control the level of accuracy by setting the appropriate classes. This property is not exposed in core results web part or the search web service.

Could someone point me to some Microsoft articles which discuss this? Thanks in advance.

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Thanks, Sabs Banerjee

Answer 1

Hi Sabsync,

This is by design. The number of results are estimated and recalculated every time you switch pages.

Best Regards.

Answer 2

Hi,

I understand this is by design - all I am asking for is a relevant Microsoft document which discusses this behavior and accepts this as a design limitation.

Regards.

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Thanks, Sabs Banerjee

Answer 3

Hi Sabsync,

Thanks for your post.

I am trying to involve someone familiar with this topic to further look at this issue.

Best Regards,

Yaoyao Chen

Answer 4

Hi there,

As mentioned this is a by design behavior. Unfortunately, we do not have any official documentation that breaks down how this works and explains the potential limitation. Your best bet is still going to be http://technet.microsoft.com in regards to how search works etc.

Thanks

Answer 5

Hello,

       Has anyone found a better solution to this inconsistent search count problem rather than unchecking the total count?