There are lots of people arguing for sandbox and so I would like to post a query to them as whether sandbox exist or not. Please cast your vote as well as give why you think there is sandbox.

Well, to me is that:
1. Google takes up to 3-6 months before giving any site a rating. It is some sort of filtering processing
2. Even after you have a ranking from google, it doesn't means that you may rank high in their SERP. This might means that besides seeing the PR as one of the biggest factor to show relevent search result, there is some algorithm which every web site has to pass. I don't know what is it. But it might be the one people often call "sandbox theory".

Correct me if i'm wrong

Google will rate a site, but the first PR run, you'll have a lower PR (I haven't seen any new page with a PR higher than 4 on the first run, but the 2nd PR update this deficit seems to go away and you'll be able to get a higher PR).

Anybody get a higher pr than 4 on their first PR update?

I know a person who got PR 5 probably on first update. He use to have templates sites at that time. The time I am talking about is almost6-8 months behind.

I got a 5 on first update for two sites this time.

well i have a few comments

1) in fact you can have PR and still be in sandbox

2) yes i have seen it to me one of my sites went from PR0 to PR6
and another went from PR0 to PR4-PR5 about 200 pages jumped to PR4 that were PR0
wish it updated the other 100 pages guess i will just have to wait by then i will have about another 400 pages oh well looks like g**gle will not catch up i hope it does

So, all you guys also beleive that there is a "sandbox"?

I am not sure about this whole sandbox theory, they do have the best (imo) algorithm for searching and they do work in mysterious ways (like not showing all your backlinks) so the sandbox may be part of it if it helps to give better search results.

SEO has more conspiracy theories attached to it than Elvis's death or the moon landing though and this could be just one of them. They probably do some thing like a sandbox but it would be more of a coinsidence if all our SERPS worked in the exact way that we thought it should.

So all the votes are in favor that there is snadbox but actually there is nothing called sandbox. What happens is when you launch a new site there is a fresh content to your site and so if you get couple of links and add your url to here and there and so due to fresh content you rank well but as you are new your content are not updated that regularly and so you subside in serp to a much permanent position and that can be not in top 1000 and so people start believing that there is something like Sandbox. This can be well bookmarked with the new site of WT that is devread for Articles. If we can contribute at the same pace to the Articles there will be no sandbox that will be evident in that site and that way it will clear the minds of lots of poeple.

Thanks
Shabbir Bhimani

I suppose that google may rank new content higher as it is more relevant. If you want to get todays news stories in a search then it would be better if there was some kind of boost to fresh content.

Like I mentioned before they do do strange things and that may be their motivation for what shabbirbhimani described about high ranking and fresh content.

Then again they may think that newer sites hold less credability and hold you back in the sandbox!

MattD

I believe in the sandbox theory. I have some new sites that all place well in the SERPS for MSN and yahoo and receive a fair bit of traffic from both. However, looking up the same keywords on google shows that I don't make even the first 20 pages (ranked # 1-3 on MSN and 1st page for yahoo). Also, my traffic from google is virtually nil.

Originally Posted by Padawan

I believe in the sandbox theory. I have some new sites that all place well in the SERPS for MSN and yahoo and receive a fair bit of traffic from both. However, looking up the same keywords on google shows that I don't make even the first 20 pages (ranked # 1-3 on MSN and 1st page for yahoo). Also, my traffic from google is virtually nil.

The main reason behind this is the difference in algo.

when any generally launches a site he thinks he optimizing using the on page factors but he cannot get as many links as quickly as he can optimize the site for some keyword and so you rank well in Yahoo and MSN which are more of a on page based than google which is more of backlinks based. So people started buzzing something about sandbox and they think they should also be on similar position on Google also.

Actually, in my experience, in the few months I have had the sites all my efforts have gone into gaining backlinks and none into on page seo at all yet really. This leads me to believe that I should, in theory, rank better in google than the other search engines, based largely upon the reasons you have just given.

The truth, though, is that the complete opposite is in fact the case.

Originally Posted by Padawan

Actually, in my experience, in the few months I have had the sites all my efforts have gone into gaining backlinks and none into on page seo at all yet really. This leads me to believe that I should, in theory, rank better in google than the other search engines, based largely upon the reasons you have just given.

It depends on the Anchor text you gain in that time and also the quality of your Anchor text placed links.

Also if we consider the theory of sandbox then when you search for 360 yahoo it should not appear as its very recently launched but in google its on top of the results.

There is a tool here to test the sandbox:

http://roberttaft.com/no_filter.htm

I tried it for "publisher database" (my site) and in a normal search, my site doesn't even rank. But in the "no sandbox" search, my site is #1.

Personally, I obviously really, really want to get out of the sandbox.

-Tony

that's how it's always been at Google. New sites can and do rank highly for some terms for a short while before disappearing out of sight.

It's simply that the time scale has extended from a few days maybe a couple of weeks to a few months now.

??? My site is new and has never ranked highly. It was low from day 1. The only way it even appears at all in any search results is when the sandbox is removed.

I've never seen this rank-high-then-drop phenomenon you speak of.

Certainly I have found that the age of both the site and the age of the inbound links (and the age of the site from which the inbound links come?) affect the google ranking (not necessarily page rank, but the rank as in where the site appears in response to a specific phrase search)

I have sites which have more links, and more relevant content which consistently appear below (less-optimised) but older sites.

I also have found that brand new sites (ie newly registered url) do not do this high-then-low thing the first time Google finds them. However if they are a 'dormant' website that has never been visited by Google, yet registered some time (?over a year) ago, they do jump in at first place for a couple of days, then fade for a few months....then come back again to a decent ranking.