Google changes cause concern

Changes that occured in Google results over the Christmas period have raised concerns, particularly for independent adult sites.

Google engineer Matt Cutts indicated that no changes had been made to the Google algorithm - the key feature that ranks webpages for relevance. However, he did state that Google was refreshing it’s database which would most likely result in any observable slight changes.

Some adult webmasters, however, feared that they were being penalised.

Danny Sullivan, editor of Search Engine Land, points out that use of Google’s Webmaster Central can help determine if there is an actual Google penalty or not. He additionally pointed out that Google is the only search engine to provide such a service.

It has been suggested at Boing Boing that the recent earthquake off Taiwan, which has caused severe disruption to internet connections across Asia, could be responsible for Google refreshing its search index - especially if many Asian websites are currently unavailable due to disrupted connections.

Additionally, the generally unnatural nature in which adult sites connect to each other has been suggested as an additional reason for adult sites to be more vulnerable to any kind of changes at Google.

Overall, Google has a long history of making both large and small changes to its search results, and being included in the top - or not - for relevant keywords, has often been an unstable experience with no guarantees of longevity.

While such changes may sometimes be painful, these are simply hazards and facts of working with search engines in an ever changing internet landscape.