A Hack For Getting True Google Indexation Numbers?

Source: Stephan Spencer's Scatterings
URL: http://feeds.stephanspencer.com/~r/scatterings/~3/288967288/a-hack-for-getting-true-google-indexation-numbers

I don't have much faith in Google's (or any other engine's, for that matter) estimated number of results, and I've held this view for a long time. I believe it to be a wildly inaccurate number. If you think about it, why would a search engine put a lot of effort or processing power into really nailing that number, since searchers (with the notable exception of SEOs) could care less if there are 100 thousand results or 100 million results returned; they only really care what's in the top 10. So it's fraugh...