This day in search marketing history: February 24

Google unleashes the Panda algorithm

In 2011, Google released an algorithm update that would eventually become known as the Google Panda Update.

Google had been facing mounting criticism over content farms earning top rankings in Google with “shallow” or “low-quality” content. The Panda algorithm was Google’s response.

The change impacted 11.8% of its search results in the U.S., which was a far higher impact on results than most of its algorithm changes.

This may have been one of the most memorable days in the history of SEO. And the impacts of Panda would continue to be felt for years to come.

Read all about it in and then dig deeper:

Also on this day

2022: The new method could be configured entirely from your Google Ads account instead of your CRM. 

2022: The changes removed potential bottlenecks for retailers.

2022: Google was running a messaging pilot program that would enable customers to send messages to your customer service email.

2021: The tool providers noticed a decline in the number of featured snippets showing up in the Google search results.

2021: Previous Showcase Shopping ad layouts would become part of Product Shopping ad groups. 

2020: It seemed like Google could determine the category of a website and understand whether the site needed to have a level of authority (i.e., was the site written by experts and did it have an authority?).

2020: He helped grow one of the most popular SEO toolsets, Majestic, and was working on a new toolset called InLinks.

2017: The latest images showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have and more.

2016: The AMP news carousel launched for everyone, although some people started seeing these pages early.

2016: Google added the “Send to your phone” feature, which was on the Google Maps interface, directly in the search results.

2015: Google released a new security measure to warn users before they visited sites containing nefarious downloads.

2015: Unused ads, ad groups and campaigns would be deleted and “remove” would be a permanent move across the board.

2015: New photo section included the ability to choose between profile, logo and cover images as display for maps and search.

2015: Google was testing showing a live chat button in the local search box within the web search results for some businesses.

2015: The ads would appear across Google ad networks including mobile apps, search, display and video.

2015: It combined YP’s own PPC-search inventory with paid-search ads on Google, Yahoo and Bing.

2014: Google’s Matt Cutts announced that Google had taken action on two link networks operated in Poland. 

2014: Cutts answered: “Does Google use EXIF data from pictures as a ranking factor?”

2014: About eight different movie blog sites, including Slashfilm.com, had apparently lost traffic in Google.

2014: Google announced that Channel Intelligence’s feed management and optimization capabilities would integrate with the DoubleClick Search Commerce Suite.

2014: All you needed to do was search for [blink html] to activate it.

2014: Bing Public Tags were no longer available and all existing tags were removed from Bing.

2014: Bing announced a series of updates for its iPhone app, including a search widget to help with navigation, new image tiles, and a shake feature to see what stories are trending.

2014: Additional mobile insights included ad copy, impressions and clicks, click-through rates, costs-per-click at the campaign and keyword level.

2012: The rich snippets would show upcoming concert tour dates in your area underneath a band’s website on Google’s SERPs.

2012: Chomp, acquired for an unconfirmed $50 million, was dedicated to solving the problem of app discovery.

2012: The latest images showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more.

2011: Overstock created a program in which they provided discounts to products in exchange for links (with specific anchor text to specific URLs) from .edu sites.

2011: Google rolled out recipe search, taking advantage of the structured data to launch a whole category with the same prominence as image and video search.

2011: Google let AdWords advertisers automatically optimize what ads displayed most based on conversion rates.

2011: Swiss privacy officials wanted Google to blur every face in Street View, even by hand if necessary. 

2011: Bing integrated Facebook Likes within its regular search results, similar to a move that Google made with social “shares” from Twitter and other platforms.

2011: Tiles were interactive logos or images displayed next to a search result. 

2011: The site was creating and indexing data on hotels in the US and UK that qualify with three stars and above.

2010: Google’s Real Time Search gained a new data source, updates from Facebook fan pages.

2010: Three Google executives were found guilty of criminal charges over a bullying video that appeared on the Google Video service. 

2010: Yelp had allegedly attempted to “extort” money from small businesses by offering to remove negative reviews in exchange for payment.

2009: New products included search retargeting, enhanced retargeting and enhanced targeting.

2009: My Places for MapQuest4Mobile offered a rich user experience and the ability to save maps and directions.

2009: More than half of all search queries were at least three words long, and more than a third were four words or longer.

2009: Searches for terms related to the economic struggles rose dramatically during 2008.

Past contributions from Search Engine Land’s Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)

These columns are a snapshot in time and have not been updated since publishing, unless noted. Opinions expressed in these articles are those of the author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.

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