thoughts on the new google update
 

Been Gazumped by Google? Trying to make Sense of the "Florida" Update!
By Barry Lloyd 2003-11-25

"With the huge number of postings on all the various forums, concerning this update, most people don't know where to start looking for information about the recent Google update. The following is an attempt to put down rationally (I hope) most of the information that is known and the (unproven) theories behind the update algo."

full article

That's the most interesting one I've read.

An interesting read, but I feel that he too greatly discounts the idea that Google is going after SEO results directly.

Taking the top 500 potentially commerical searches, and lowering the "SEO" filter until it nukes them off the top is good business. It will pump up adwords, it will help new companies / individuals to see traffic from Google, and will perhaps put a few SEO people out of work.

it could make SEO work worthless, if not all results are treated in a similar manner.

It could also be one of the next steps in the deconstruction / de-evolution of google into a less important search portal that no longer has the best results.

Alex

i've been thinking that google was headed down for a while now, and this latest update just reinforces that thought.

it's not the SEO thats a problem. properly done optimization is what makes for relevant results and satisfied surfers.

the spammers that have taken expired domains and filled the results with non-relevant sites are the problem.

this latest update is like that old saying "throwing the baby out with the bath water." they got rid of some of the worst spammers, but threw out an enormous amount of relevant sites in the process.

It's amazing, using Scroogle I have tons of keyword combos that have only a couple of changes in the first 100 results (0-3 from what I've seen) before and after. Yet, almost all of my popular ones (I.E. Britney Spears) are changed like 97 out of a 100. So it's definitely specific keyword targetting. All of the keywords and keyword combos that haven't been touched are all less popular ones. Thank god for those or I wouldn't be getting any traffic.