The Chatterbox

New Google Preview

For those who don't actively track this stuff, Google is apparently getting set to release some major revamps of their code. Something they're calling Caffeine. You can see the preview at http://www2.sandbox.google.com/. You can also of course use this preview to compare rankings side-by-side with the current Google.

It's noteworthy to realize Google doesn't normally release such previews prior to an algorithm update. In fact it's never happened like this before. The fact that they are releasing a preview may indicate there is a lot more going on in this update than is at first apparent.

They're not saying much about what has changed exactly, as is completely normal and understandable. I'm sure those who watch these things will be espousing their opinions on the changes over the coming days/weeks. Note that you won't see any great changes in the user interface or how it looks visually. All of the changes are happening in the back end in the way they spider, index and rank sites.

I checked some of the markets and keywords I've tracked over a long time period and didn't see a ton of movement. One thing that I did notice is that without fail sites I knew were involved in a good bit of link spamming, where someone manages to get a ton of low quality links by blog/forum spamming, but where there are few or no legitimate high quality backlinks have taken a tumble. Not just a few places either, but many, many pages.

From this single observation it appears Google may be getting a better handle on preventing people from artificially pumping up their sites with these low quality links with spot on anchor text. I don't see it as a penalty, just that those links aren't conferring as much weight, trust or authority as they have been. Which is a good thing in my book.

In checking my own sites for their main (most competitive) keyword phrases they're all either holding steady in the New Google, or in many cases my sites have gained a bit more traction. This applies across the board, both for older more established sites and for newer sites that don't yet have a large footprint.

All in all I didn't see a lot of movement. But what I saw looks okay to me.

Additional Resources for more reading:
Matt Cutts' Blog
Google's Webmaster Central Blog
Vanessa Fox's initial thoughts on the new Google on Search Engine Land. (Vanessa used to work at Google for those unaware.)

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