Google’s Penguin has been updated again. This is the fifth confirmed release, and the newest one contains a spam fighting algorithm. This update is using a new and improved version of Penguin 2, so Google actually is calling it Penguin 2.1.
According to Google’s web spam chief, Matt Cutts, the new Penguin 2.1 updat is going to affect about one percent of searches in a noticeable way.
If you are wondering, below are the iterations of Penguin to date:
- Penguin 1 on April 24, 2012 (impacting around 3.1% of queries)
- Penguin 2 on May 26, 2012 (impacting less than 0.1%)
- Penguin 3 on October 5, 2012 (impacting around 0.3% of queries)
- Penguin 4 (AKA Penguin 2.0) on May 22, 2013 (impacting 2.3% of queries)
- Penguin 5 (AKA Penguin 2.1) on Oct. 4, 2013 (impacting around 1% of queries)
If Google calling Penguin 5 by the name of Penguin 2.1 seems odd to you, we agree. But the reason they are doing it goes back to Google.
When Google came out with the Panda algorithm that was supposed to fight poor content quality, it called the very first iteration Panda. So when the next one came out, people called it Panda 2. Then when the third came out, people called it Panda 3. But Google said it was only a minor tweak so it should be called Panda 2.1.
Google eventually let it be known that a Panda 3 update did happen. It caused the numbering to go into Panda 3.0. What happened at that point is there were so many tweaks that eventually Google had to start using more decimal places, such as Panda 3.92.
So that has caused some people in the search engine world to just number any Penguin update sequentially. So some folks are calling the newest iteration Panda 5. And that’s what we’re doing here!
For those who need a refresher, Penguin is part of Google’s new algorithm that looks for sites that are thought to be spamming search results but still are ranking high. It especially targets sites with paid links.
As we saw with Google Hummingbird, this company is not one to rest on its laurels for long, if at all. Google also bought Bump recently, so the search giant is always on the move!