Optimize My Website - Google's Update

Google's Update - Bourbon

Google Logo Once again Google is in the midst of updating their search index. This particular update is being referred to as Bourbon. Perhaps it is named this because of the amount of potential stress that index updates cause. We will not know the outcome of this until the next few months. One thing is sure; sites will experience a change in position on the search engine results pages (SERPs).

According to SearchEngineRoundtable, the final segment of the Bourbon update is underway and should be completed by next week (June 15, 2005) or so. As indicated by Barry's post, GoogleGuy made an appearance on the WebmasterWorld forum explaining where exactly the update stands:

...we completed a binary push this weekend that has hooks for the last part of Bourbon. We'll turn on one datacenter, and then the rest of the datacenters over the course of the next week or so. After the other changes that went out, this last change should be less noticeable.

Hopefully, this result won't cause the calamity that's been associated with past Google updates. Judging by the tone of GoogleGuy's post, this apparently is the mindset of Google employees as well.

Looking back a few years to the winter of 2002, the web community saw their first serious update from Google. Up to that point updates were seen every six months or so and none of them were that monumental. Since that time though, we have seen industry changing updates every few months with smaller changes that rival the big one of 2002 happening every month.

This last update has been staggered into three and a half sections in order to avoid a massive amount of dislocation in established rankings as was seen in previous major updates. While changes stemming from the Bourbon Update have not actually manifested into a full reordering of Google's SERPs, many individual webmasters have reported fairly significant losses or gains in ranking over the past few days.

The search environment has changed substantially over the past three years and in that time, every major player in the search sector has changed as well. Today, Google has become a lot more complicated, so much so that it has stopped trying to look simple. This change in corporate attitude is best reflected in two places, the homepage and the About Google section.

Along with the SEPPs changes Google is updating other aspects of their business. For instance; Google's homepage used to be quite simple. Recently, Google created a personalized portal interface, google.com/ig, offering users instant access to several of these new features. For folks with Google accounts such as Gmail users, subscribers to Google Groups, Google desktop users and other account holders, personalized versions of the once sparse homepage now presents instant entry points to the various applications the individual uses. Many industry observers have suggested Google's adoption of so many new features and an all-in-one interface show they are moving towards presenting themselves as more of a portal like Yahoo or MSN. Google has always been a bit different than its competition. Even when borrowing and innovating on competitors' ideas, Google has, until now at least, managed to keep itself at an arm's length from the mainstream in appearance and operation. The maintenance of that image gave Internet users an alternative view of Google, one that propelled Google to a position of almost total dominance of the search engine sector. While that dominance might have slipped over the past year, Google is still the most popular search appliance in the world.

Google strives to live up to user expectations and, for the most part, has met and exceeded them time and time again. There is one long-held expectation that Google may not be able to live up to any longer though. Many of us assume Google's relatively informal public attitude will continue to carry over into the later part of the decade. It won't. By comparison, Google will almost certainly continue to be perceived as the search engine driven by youthful energy. Whenever competitors such as MSN or Yahoo try to appear as down-to-Earth as Google does, their efforts seem obvious and forced. Does anyone remember that poor-fellow in the butterfly suit wandering aimlessly around New York last year? Google's communication style is maturing and the best place to view these changes is on the About Google section of their site.

As it grows, Google appears to be running into the same problem other webmasters with numerous sites or services encounter, the rapid dilution of a domain's unique topic focus. In order to keep themselves accessible, understandable and relevant, Google's teams of engineers, programmers and public relations specialists are involved in what appears to be a massive overhaul of the interface, public documents and the basic sorting algorithm that produces organic results. As in previous years, how this all plays out in the end is entirely up to the searching public. From the SEO/SEM perspective, it is a good thing Google is in the midst of this update. Web workers have been demanding a greater degree of transparency from Google for some time now and perhaps these updates are the beginning of a new commitment to communication from the Googleplex.

Written by Administrator
Thursday, 02 August 2007
Google's Update - Bourbon Once again Google is in the midst of updating their search index. This particular update is being referred to as Bourbon. Perhaps it is named this because of the amount of potential stress that index updates cause. We will not know the outcome of this until the next few months. One thing is sure; sites will experience a change in position on the search engine results pages (SERPs). According to SearchEngineRoundtable, the final segment of the Bourbon update is underway and should be completed by next week (June 15, 2005) or so. As indicated by Barry's post, GoogleGuy made an appearance on the WebmasterWorld forum explaining where exactly the update stands: ...we completed a binary push this weekend that has hooks for the last part of Bourbon. We'll turn on one datacenter, and then the rest of the datacenters over the course of the next week or so. After the other changes that went out, this last change should be less noticeable. Hopefully, this result won't cause the calamity that's been associated with past Google updates. Judging by the tone of GoogleGuy's post, this apparently is the mindset of Google employees as well. Looking back a few years to the winter of 2002, the web community saw their first serious update from Google. Up to that point updates were seen every six months or so and none of them were that monumental. Since that time though, we have seen industry changing updates every few months with smaller changes that rival the big one of 2002 happening every month. This last update has been staggered into three and a half sections in order to avoid a massive amount of dislocation in established rankings as was seen in previous major updates. While changes stemming from the Bourbon Update have not actually manifested into a full reordering of Google's SERPs, many individual webmasters have reported fairly significant losses or gains in ranking over the past few days. The search environment has changed substantially over the past three years and in that time, every major player in the search sector has changed as well. Today, Google has become a lot more complicated, so much so that it has stopped trying to look simple. This change in corporate attitude is best reflected in two places, the homepage and the About Google section. Along with the SEPPs changes Google is updating other aspects of their business. For instance; Google's homepage used to be quite simple. Recently, Google created a personalized portal interface, google.com/ig, offering users instant access to several of these new features. For folks with Google accounts such as Gmail users, subscribers to Google Groups, Google desktop users and other account holders, personalized versions of the once sparse homepage now presents instant entry points to the various applications the individual uses. Many industry observers have suggested Google's adoption of so many new features and an all-in-one interface show they are moving towards presenting themselves as more of a portal like Yahoo or MSN. Google has always been a bit different than its competition. Even when borrowing and innovating on competitors' ideas, Google has, until now at least, managed to keep itself at an arm's length from the mainstream in appearance and operation. The maintenance of that image gave Internet users an alternative view of Google, one that propelled Google to a position of almost total dominance of the search engine sector. While that dominance might have slipped over the past year, Google is still the most popular search appliance in the world. Google strives to live up to user expectations and, for the most part, has met and exceeded them time and time again. There is one long-held expectation that Google may not be able to live up to any longer though. Many of us assume Google's relatively informal public attitude will continue to carry over into the later part of the decade. It won't. By comparison, Google will almost certainly continue to be perceived as the search engine driven by youthful energy. Whenever competitors such as MSN or Yahoo try to appear as down-to-Earth as Google does, their efforts seem obvious and forced. Does anyone remember that poor-fellow in the butterfly suit wandering aimlessly around New York last year? Google's communication style is maturing and the best place to view these changes is on the About Google section of their site. As it grows, Google appears to be running into the same problem other webmasters with numerous sites or services encounter, the rapid dilution of a domain's unique topic focus. In order to keep themselves accessible, understandable and relevant, Google's teams of engineers, programmers and public relations specialists are involved in what appears to be a massive overhaul of the interface, public documents and the basic sorting algorithm that produces organic results. As in previous years, how this all plays out in the end is entirely up to the searching public. From the SEO/SEM perspective, it is a good thing Google is in the midst of this update. Web workers have been demanding a greater degree of transparency from Google for some time now and perhaps these updates are the beginning of a new commitment to communication from the Googleplex.
Last Updated ( Thursday, 02 August 2007 )