back to article Panda-monium as Google updates key search algorithm

Google has updated Panda, the algorithm it uses to weed out what it deems to be low-quality search results. Panda was introduced in early 2011 as part of The Chocolate Factory's never-ending quest to sell more ads ensure search results satisfy searchers' thirst for knowledge. It's been controversial because some web publishers …

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  1. joeW
    Mushroom

    I love the sound

    of weeping SEO "experts" in the morning...

    1. NotWorkAdmin

      Re: I love the sound

      Tsk, they aren't the one's weeping. Everytime this type of crap happens I'm subjected to long winded, bullshit, meaningless emails with fluffy words like "Panda" all over them from the "experts" my boss insists on paying £1000's to each month.

  2. russell 6

    Just checked. Phew

    Must admit, just did a quick check to see if my book Syria: Refugees and Rebels still comes up on the first page. As does my blog.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Just checked. Phew

      That was about as subtle as Russell Brand around the newest female stars.

      1. Robin

        Re: Just checked. Phew

        Gotta check the bloggy-woggy

        1. TitterYeNot

          Re: Just checked. Phew

          "Gotta check the bloggy-woggy"

          You are Jeremy Clarkson and I claim my five pounds...

          1. Charlie Clark Silver badge
            Happy

            Re: Just checked. Phew

            You are Jeremy Clarkson and I claim my five pounds...

            Also: go straight to jail, do not pass go and do not collect any endorsements!

          2. Robin

            Re: Just checked. Phew

            > You are Jeremy Clarkson and I claim my five pounds...

            Oops, I didn't notice that when I wrote it! I was mentally-blinded by the image of Russell Brand and his tinkie-winkie or whatever he calls it.

            I'm very sorry ... *dramatic pause, look to camera* ... for what I did.

            Your fiver is in the post.

      2. russell 6

        Re: Just checked. Phew

        It wasn't meant to be subtle

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Feel a disturbance in the SEO world

    as if millions of spammers were suddenly suffering ...

    Now seriously, this is good for all except for the "business" that depend on appearing first on Google results to generate income. Maybe this will teach yet another generation of internet "entrepeneurs" that any business whose revenue depends on a single source is just waiting to die.

    While I don't feel sorry for the quick buck spammers that are going to be deprived of their parasitic money, I also think that honest business impacted by this will suffer. Sad but true.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    No longer really useful

    Somewhere in the not too distant past Google stopped being useful as my search engine for information.

    What I now often get is a page full of commercial selling sites, or even aggregated link sites to same, with no relevance to my very specific collection of terms. Going to page 2 or 3 merely repeats the same links. Alternatively there are no hits at all - yet I know such pages of information do exist.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: No longer really useful

      I start sometimes my search on purpose on page 10 to avoid that crap, because the SEO do not care about that end of the search results.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: No longer really useful

      Hear, hear.

      There is nothing more annoying than finding pages of junk by people wanting to sell you something when you just want technical information. It is almost as bad as those sites that want to display PDF documents in the browser (even when you don't have a reader plugin) and you want to just download them to read later.

    3. Indolent Wretch

      Re: No longer really useful

      I'm not trying to be cynically skeptical but I've heard this a lot in various comment sections around the web. Can I ask what you are searching for and where from?

      I'm a developer and I probably for one reason or another do a hundred or so search engine visits a day, normally looking for documentation, example code, bug lists, problem reports, error messages and stuff like that.

      Personally I find Google to be absolutely brilliant at what it does and every other search engine that I've tried has badly disappointed me within the first 10 minutes. I find Googles ads and sponsored links very easy to subconsciously filter out and they aren't in anyway intrusive. Most importantly the results just seem better and more comprehensive.

      So can I ask what are your "very specific collection of terms"?

      1. MacGyver

        Re: No longer really useful

        @IW,

        Well, for one thing, drivers. Back in the day you could search for a driver with:

        VEN_39FD&DEV_2933 xp driver

        and it would net some fake results, but have some valid links and a few of those pointing to the .inf file from the driver package. This same link nowadays will net only garbage. And garbage of the worst caliber, such as download managers, and system scanners, and the like.

        Sometimes all I get back from a Google search is garbage, and it has gotten worse in the last year or two.

        This could be easily solved if Google would allow me to combine multiple search results. So If I put "Policy Server" in one search windows and "Policy Server dolphin rape-cave" in the other, and said that anything found in both is not to be returned. Hell, they could let me store spam search results as a favorite, and always search against it. Problem solved.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: No longer really useful

      For technical information, I tend to use duckduckgo these days

      1. BlueGreen

        Re: No longer really useful @AmmyKami83

        I use DDG when I can but it simply hasn't got the quality of google results. Plus - AFAIK - it can't do a lot of stuff that google excels at such as phrase searches (put quotes around it for an exact phrase "rather like this") or word wildstars in phrases (e.g. "A duplicate attribute key has been found when processing: Table: *, Column: *, Value: *. The attribute is *" - mega helpful when MS inevitably lets you down). Google can do this and #a lot# more besides, but most people aren't aware of this.

        Google FTW technically. DDG FTW because they're nicer.

        Slightly more useful demo of wildcards, google for

        "be there or be *"

        with quotes, and see what I mean.

  5. wolfetone Silver badge

    Just one thing

    Are the costs of advertising on Google going to increase or decrease with this release? I'm asking for a friend like...

  6. ElNumbre
    Joke

    Murka!

    Wonder if this is behind the recent rash of results that are America centric, despite using google.co.uk as my search engine. Not just me either, a few people have mentioned it to me. Although its not irritating enough to make us Bing.

  7. RyokuMas
    Mushroom

    All change!

    So Google are now #1 on the tech rich list... time to hide the evidence that manipulated them into first place!

    1. phuzz Silver badge

      Re: All change!

      It's not really manipulation, they got popular by offering a good service (their search), and then made loads of money by selling advertising. Then they created other products and put adverts on them, and made even more money.

  8. Gordon 11
    Coat

    Based on the timing....

    ....presumably some chap in Spain will be checking about his entries from last century?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Based on the timing....

      Care to explain this reference? What this has to do with Spain and which entries from last century are you referring to? Just curious.

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