A Toast to Our Fallen Comrades

Google silently released Panda 2.5 this week, and the smell has polluted the web.  This latest revision of Google’s much-maligned machine learning algorithm has identified and punished such evil spammers as Technorati, GamerPro, and MotorTrend.

According to SearchMetrics, Technorati lost 73% of it’s search engine visibility in Google, GamePro lost 65%, and MotorTrend lost 31%.  Obviously these sites are not spammers.  Google’s little machine is seriously broken and no one inside the GooglePlex seems serious about fixing it.

Panda 1.0 rolled out in February with serious bugs, notably decimating quality web sites such as The British Medical Journal, Merck Manuals, AskTheBuilder, and the Math Forum at Drexel University.  Most notable about Panda 1.0 is that it actually benefited eHow.com — which most people considerd the most important anti-spam target on the web.

Panda 2.0 rolled out in April and finally hit eHow, but it also managed to decimate a huge number of quality web sites, including RegHardware, Computing.net, ComputerWeekly, TechRadar, TechWatch, TechEye, PCAdvisor, TechWorld, IT Pro Portal, Electric Pig, Pocket Lint, PC World Business, and this one.

Panda 2.5 didn’t hurt everyone, of course.  Search is a zero-sum game.  Whenever there are loser, there are winners.  The big winners from Panda include YouTube.com and Android.com — both owned by Google. No one has yet figured out how to work around the Panda algorithm, but being owned by Google appears to be one important factor in doing well in the new search results.

Tonight we drink a toast to our fallen comrades at Technorati, GamerPro, and MotorTrend.  We express sympathy for their losses and wish them speedy recoveries.  We also express sympathy for the larger group of losers in these Panda updates — the hundreds of millions of people who use Google to search the web and are now suffering from far lower quality in their search results.

Got Bing?

VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)
A Toast to Our Fallen Comrades, 10.0 out of 10 based on 1 rating
Last updated .

Follow Will.Spencer on
  • Muthu

    Rightly said, the websites owned by google are gaining the most from these Panda updates.
    Everytime a reconsideration request is sent, all the big G says is ‘Ur site has violated the quality guidelines’.Getting owned by google could be one of those hiddne guidelines, may be.
    After this update, i see some real spammy, non-updated, ads sprayed all over,copied articles with minimum uniqueness type of websites ranking in the first page.The algorithm could not differentiate between the popular websites from the ones that rewrite the same from the former.Seriously flawed & seriously played!!

    VA:F [1.9.22_1171]
    Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)
  • Just Chris

    Interesting since the Panda update there seems to be a problem with PR> Is google going away from page rankings?
    Google is a machine and destined to control all things relate to ” content”
    As for the standard or pat answer to why or why was my site done wrong. Google is no different then alot of the internet moguls .. Ever had any dealings with Paypal  They treat you unfairly at all costs with no recourse. There are companies that just that big that done care both in cyber world and brick and mortar.
    Chris

    VA:F [1.9.22_1171]
    Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)
  • Marlon Franco

    I agree with this! It’s pretty obvious, though there’s no concrete evidence to really say that they manipulated something in their recent Panda update. Hopefully, they didn’t do it intentionally or what not for their own gain.

    VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
    Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)
Related Posts

  • How Do I Clear Previous Google Searches?

    Clearing previous Google searches is a straight forward process that can take about one minute to accomplish. It should be noted that unless you’re using the Google toolbar, erasing only the history of Google is impossible. However, since people typically only use one search engine predominately, erasing the search history will only affect Google. Erasing Search History in Internet Explorer To erase the history, look for the tools tab. Depending on what version of IE being used, one can determine where the tools tab is located. Click the tools tab and then drag the mouse to the bottom and click [...]...


  • How to Delete Google History

    For many different reasons, people want to delete their search engine history. To delete history using either Internet Explorer or FireFox requires going into the options and erasing them manually. However, if you have the Google Toolbar installed on your site, you are able to erase your search history with just two clicks. Regardless, the process of erasing history takes about thirty seconds. Erasing History on Internet Explorer and FireFox To erase history on Internet Explorer and FireFox is easy. Go to the top and click tools. Then scroll to the bottom and hit either Internet Options for IE or [...]...


  • How to Track Your Ranking in Google and other Search Engines

    These tools will help you keep track of where your pages rank for your defined keywords: SERPS Tool Search Engines Supported DigitalPoint Keyword Tracker Google Top25Web Search Engine Ranking Report Google RankWhere Google, AltaVista, MSN, Alexa, Inktomi, Lycos, AllTheWeb Free Monitor for Google Google Google Rankings Google Mike’s Marketing Tools Search Engine Ranking Google, Yahoo, AOL, MSN, AllTheWeb, AltaVista, Teoma Search Engine Position Checker Altavista, Excite, Google, Yahoo, HotBot, MSN, WiseNut, AllTheWeb, Teoma GoYa-Rank Google, Yahoo, MSN Yahoo Search Rankings Yahoo...


Home » Blog » Editorials » A Toast to Our Fallen Comrades