This seemed to happen after the new code rolled out, and may have taken as long as two weeks. Post-Penguin activity had one final peak on October 6th (116°), but it is unclear whether this was Penguin or a new update. Multiple Google trackers showed massive flux around December 14-15, including a rare MozCast temperature of 109°F. Webmaster chatter was heavy as well, but Google did not confirm an update. After testing longer search snippets for over two years, Google increased them across a large number of results.
For anyone interested in the algorithm, the video provides a lot of context to both Google’s process and their priorities. Google rolled out yet another Panda data update, claiming that less than 1% of queries were affect. Ranking fluctuation data suggested that the impact was substantially higher than previous Panda updates (3.5, 3.6).
Although “Places” pages were rolled out in September of 2009, they were originally only a part of Google Maps. Google rolled out the Panda update to all English queries worldwide (not limited to English-speaking countries). New signals were also integrated, including data about sites users blocked via the SERPs directly or the Chrome browser.
Google released a series of updates, mostly targeted at low-quality links, including reciprocal links, link farms, and paid links. Jagger rolled out in at least 3 stages, from roughly September to November of 2005, with the greatest impact occurring in October. Although not a traditional algorithm update, Google started allowing the same domain to appear multiple times on a SERP. Previously, domains were limited to 1-2 listings, or 1 listing with indented results. Responding to competition by major social sites, including Facebook and Twitter, Google launched the +1 button . Clicking [+1] allowed users to influence search results within their social circle, across both organic and paid results.
While unconfirmed by Google, MozCast recorded extreme temperatures of 108° and a drop in local pack prevalence, and the local SEO community noted a major shake-up in pack results. MozCast detected a major (106°) spike on November 10th and another on the 18th. Industry chatter was high during both periods, with some suggesting that the second spike was a reversal of the first update. Many people reported bad dates in SERPs during the same time period, but it’s unclear whether this was causal or just a coincidence.
Google Allo was a mobile instant messaging app developed for Android and iOS to exchange messages, images, files, and videos. YouTube – Video service that allows users to freely upload videos and view others videos. Google Toolbar – For Microsoft Windows Internet Explorer and Firefox users. Google Toolbar add-on enables users using these browsers to have access to Google search and other Google features any time the browser is open.
Google announced an update to reward in-depth reviews over thin reviews and spammy affiliates (impacting English-language only at launch). While the update seemed focused on review quality, the exact factors involved appear to be complex. Google announced another broad spam update, which rolled out over about 8 days. Unlike the July update, Google did not specifically call this a “link spam” update and did not provide much detail about the sites and tactics targeted. Twitter dove into the subscription business last year with the launch of Twitter Blue, a pretty cheap monthly subscription that offers a few additional features for the service. Now, months after iOS, Twitter Blue is finally gaining the ability to change the look of the Twitter app’s homescreen icon.
Google, Yahoo and Microsoft jointly announced support for a consolidated approach to structured data. They also created a number of new “schemas”, in an apparent bid to move toward even richer search results. Specific details of what changed were unclear, but some sites reported large-scale losses. Google announced 30 changes over the previous month, including image search landing-page quality detection, more relevant site-links, more rich snippets, and related-query improvements. The line between an “algo update” and a “feature” got a bit more blurred.
Big Daddy changed the way Google handled URL canonicalization, redirects (301/302) and other technical issues. There were stirrings about an update in December, along with some reports of major ranking changes in November, but Google reported no major changes. Google released a preview of a massive infrastructure change, designed to speed crawling, expand the index, and integrate indexation and ranking in nearly real-time.
Penguin update numbering was rebooted, similar to Panda – this was the 3rd Penguin release. Google shook the local SEO world with an update that dramatically altered some local results and modified how they handle and interpret location cues. Google claimed that Pigeon created closer ties between the local algorithm and core algorithm. Google announced a significant Panda update, which included an algorithmic component.