2011: Year Of The (Google) Panda

2011: Year Of The (Google) Panda December 24, 2011 http://www.WebProNews.com

2011: Year Of The (Google) Panda Chris Crum | Staff Writer How did Panda affect you? Perhaps the biggest story line in Internet search this year has been the ongoing saga of the Google Panda Update. Let's recap, and look ahead to next year. Has Panda been the most significant thing to happen in search this year to you? If not, what was? Let us know in the comments. At the beginning of the year, there was a lot of attention being payed to the quality of Google's search results, as the content farm movement was reaching a high search result saturation point. There was also a lot of criticism. Eventually, Google finally took action. It launched in February (globally in April), and initially earned the nickname "Farmer" update. I believe this was coined by Danny Sullivan. Then Google came out and let the world know what its real name was: Panda, named after a Google engineer that goes by Panda. "He was one of the key guys," explained Google's Amit Singhal in an interview with Wired in early March. "He basically came up with the breakthrough a few months back that made it possible." So, whether you think Panda has been a great thing for search, or it has ruined your life and/or business, I guess you have this guy to thank. Though, I'm sure if he didn't come up with it, someone else at Google would have come up with something similar. The criticism was getting pretty strong, and Google can't afford to lose users due to poor search quality. Though Google does many, many other things and offers many products that people use on a daily basis, search and advertising are still Google's bread and butter, and Google's quality has still kept it high above competitors in search market share. We've probably posted close to a hundred Panda-related article at WebProNews this year, if you count the ones leading up to it, about content farms and their effects on search, and the ones about the update before it actually came to be known as Panda. I could probably turn them into a book if I wanted, so I'm not going to rehash it all here, but let's go through some highlights. Google "Panda" Algorithm Update -- What's Known & What's Possible was an early look at some things that were evident, and what people were speculating about what might be hurting them with the Panda update. There were a lot of good comments on this one too, for further discussion. Suite101, was one of the sites hit hard by Panda. In that Wired interview, Matt Cutts actually mentioned them by name, saying, "I feel pretty confident about the algorithm on Suite 101." Read the full article …….. http://www.webpronews.com/2011-year-of-the-google-panda-2011-12 Has Panda improved Google or hurt it? Let us know what you think.