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Last year Google turned their attention to the problems posed by poor quality information being provided on a large scale through their ranking system; in 2011 they have taken decisive action to combat this issue.

Earlier this year Google announced that it would address the problem of certain sites (more commonly known as ‘content farms’) propagating what they classify as “shallow” or “low quality” information, from appearing in the ‘top listings’ of their search results.  By implementing significant changes to their ranking algorithm, Google has ensured that the quality of the material displayed is of a high standard, maintaining their integrity as a search engine that returns relevant results; listing sources of credible information in higher ranking positions. The changes were announced by Amit Singhal and Matt Cutts on Google’s official blog posted last week:

“This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites - sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful.  At the same time, it will provide better rankings for high-quality sites - sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis”.

Google makes frequent changes to their algorithms, but historically such modifications have been less significant, and had very little impact on the search results generated.  However, according to Google these particular changes, referred to as the ‘Panda update’ are affecting 12% of search results in the US.   On their official blog, Google acknowledged the impact of the recent changes made to their ranking algorithm:

“Many of the changes we make are so subtle that very few people notice them. But in the last day or so we launched a pretty big algorithmic improvement to our ranking - a change that noticeably impacts 11.8% of our queries”.

While these changes have only been implemented in the US, there are plans to roll them out globally, following the initial Stateside trial, if the impact is as great as it has been in the US, it could revolutionise the way web content is delivered to Google’s audience; prioritising information that is recognised as useful, and credible by Google’s users.

It is worth noting that the recent implementation of the Google Chrome Personal Blocklist Extension, which blocks domains and hosts from appearing in Google search results at a users request, was not used as a direct source for identifying sites that would be targeted by the ‘Panda’ update, although Singhal and Cutts observed that the feedback provided by users via this tool, proved incredibly useful in cross referencing the success of the changes made to their ‘ranking’ algorithm, extracting sites that publish low quality information:

“We did compare the Blocklist data we gathered with the sites identified by our algorithm, and we were very pleased that the preferences our users expressed by using the extension are well represented. If you take the top several dozen or so most-blocked domains from the Chrome extension, then this algorithmic change addresses 84% of them, which is strong independent confirmation of the user benefits [...] we’re working on many more updates that we believe will substantially improve the quality of the pages in our results”.

While the new algorithm is designed to ensure that ranked web pages maintain Google’s credibility as a global network of information, in making these changes, Google further establish themselves as a purveyor of credible sources, actively ensuring they display ‘quality’ content in their search results.  Singhal and Cutts recognise that Google has a significant role to play in encouraging a “healthy web ecosystem” and these changes seek to implement a marked improvement in the quality of the content delivered by Google to its users worldwide.