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System: The following 2 messages were spliced on to this thread from: http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4483730.htm [webmasterworld.com] by brett_tabke - 8:55 am on Aug 11, 2012 (cst -5)

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Big list:

[insidesearch.blogspot.com...]

Sadly no mention of the flightless bird :(

A couple jumped out for me - here's a few of those:


For June

gas station. [project codename "Snippets"] This change removes the boilerplate text in sitelinks titles, keeping only the information useful to the user.

gallium-2. [project codename "Synonyms"] This change improves synonyms inside concepts.

zinc-4. [project codename "Synonyms"] This change improves efficiency by not computing synonyms in certain cases.

Manzana2. [project codename "Snippets"] This launch improves clustering and ranking of links in the expanded sitelinks feature.


For July

yoyo. [project codename "Snippets"] This change leads to more useful text in sitelinks.

popcorn. [project codename "Snippets"] We've made a minor update to our algorithm that detects if a page is an "article." This change facilitates better snippets.

rrfix4. [project codename "Freshness"] This is a bug fix to a freshness algorithm. This change turns off a freshness algorithm component in certain cases when it should not be affecting the results.

Well, those 86 add up to one helluva hit for our site - longtail is dropping like flies, while the "same ol same ol well funded / connected sites" continue to dominate with their thin article content...a select few with up to four consecutive listings taking up position 1-4. So far these 86 appear to carry more destructive firepower than Florida, MayDay, Panda & Penguin combined. We are now seeing consecutive ZERO sales days...something we have NEVER encountered in our 10+ years.

Some pretty interesting stuff there. Surprised some are as detailed as they are...

I think one of the more interesting things is to notice how many of the changes really aren't algo based at all. There are a bunch about inserting content (like weather, sports results) into the SERP. (more display changes than algo changes of value to end users)

Interesting that it's the number 86. 86 = death. Yikes.

Better ordering of top results using a new and improved ranking function for combining several key ranking features.

That says a lot without saying a darned thing, the list is as helpful as a dead stick.

Yeah, I have to agree. I can't understand the point of this thread, or why it was even created. The list is worthless...

The list is worthless...

At a minimum it's billable FUD. Some clients follow Google and they won't understand a thing so they'll call to find out what it's all about and the billing clock starts ticking.

The best part is one report written to 'splain it to one client can be reused to 'splain it to 'em all and each one gets charged for it.

Isn't free money wonderful?

I found this item for July very interesting:

Panda JK. [project codename Page Quality] We launched Panda on google.co.jp and google.co.kr to promote more high-quality sites for users in Japan and Korea.

It indicates to me that the rollout for Panda isn't complete for all countries and languages, yet.

This makes sense. They roll out a change in one geographical location and see what happens. If they like what they see they start spreading it around.

So many meaningless descriptions in there, ie "This launch helps you find more high-quality content from trusted sources". But hey, I guess it's better than no news at all.

But I did just go back and look at our Japan stats to verify our Panda situation (sometimes it's hard to know what's what with so many other changes). And sure enough, the first week of July shows a clear drop compared to last year.

So frustrating, that sense that we just need to somehow unlock this thing to bring back the great rankings.

By the way is anyone aware of any current way to see what results would be like without Panda applied now that JP and KR are also in it?

Isn't free money wonderful?

OMG, incrediBILL, you know better than that! If you write such things where a Google rep can read them Google will contact your clients directly and cash in by cutting you out! You know they'd think that is a great idea too even though they are the ones creating confusion, lol.

Rango, for now you can still use [google.com...] to see results with autocomplete and personalizations off, 100 results per page, but I'd be very surprised if Google doesn't turn that method off soon to FORCE you to provide them data. Its how they roll now, its all secrets and shadows, just secrets and shadows now.

I'm being overly hard and my comments may not reflect my true impression of the company, I spend little time thinking about them actually, but the silliness expressed in that rambling list brings out the head shake in me. Sorry. I just want to write "good articles" you know? Google makes that incredibly hard to do if you want to reach Google users. The vague list doesn't help.

Sorry. I just want to write "good articles" you know? Google makes that incredibly hard to do if you want to reach Google users. The vague list doesn't help.

Google is not providing an SEO how-to list here. To put it otherwise is to be either disingenuous or naive, or both. Google is, however, constantly trying to improve user experience on its own site, and, in that regard, it's being extremely detailed about what it's doing.

I've found that paying careful attention to the interface and display algorithm can often suggest factors which have entered into the ranking algorithm. The serps interface also can suggest the kind of information mix that Google considers useful, as well as site architecture that Google might favor in its rankings. There are ideas for site improvement to be picked up from this list.

Note, by the way, that Google doesn't call these "algo changes". That's something we happened to do this month. In the past, we've stayed with the Google Inside Search naming convention, which is "Search quality highlights". The official blog post on this is....

Search quality highlights: 86 changes for June and July
8/10/12
http://insidesearch.blogspot.com/2012/08/search-quality-highlights-86-changes.html [insidesearch.blogspot.com]

Why do they need 86 changes to show Wikipedia and Amazon at the top of every search.

for now you can still use [google.com...]

Good grief they were plain awful, for one KW term I have the first 18 results were all Alibaba and this is for a registered trademarked Italian product, horrendous!

Once all these changes settle and the dust falls, I would presume the search results will be much more clear.

For me the key points that I took out and will help me are:

Snippets
Synonyms
Image results
Mobile local search

I'll spend a bit of time analyzing these over the next few days and who knows...?

People ask for more transparency and they get it.

Now that they can see it all they do it bitch about what they see.

It's a no win scenario.