Farmer panda

By Manyman (Own work) via Wikimedia Commons

I'm guessing that most people are aware of how popular and useful Google's search engine is simply by the fact that a new verb has been coined -- google it.  According to the article linked, the American Dialect Society chose it as the "most useful word of 2002."  In the past we had to hang out in libraries to get the information we can find instantly at our computers/tablets/phones today.

Behind the scenes, linked to the workings of Google's engine, is a process called SEO (Search Engine Optimization).  This is a

...process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine's "natural" or un-paid ("organic") search results. In general, the earlier (or higher ranked on the search results page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine's users.

There are companies whose reason for existence is to advise other companies on how to use this process to market on the internet.

By Vishraval (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

In 2011 Google introduced Panda:

...a change to Google's search results ranking algorithm that was first released in February 2011. The change aimed to lower the rank of "low-quality sites" or "thin sites", and return higher-quality sites near the top of the search results. CNET reported a surge in the rankings of news websites and social networking sites, and a drop in rankings for sites containing large amounts of advertising. This change reportedly affected the rankings of almost 12 percent of all search results.  --Wikipedia

According to an article at Search Engine Land, titled Google Panda Two Year Later: Losers Still Losing and One Real Recovery, "Google sent shockwaves through not only the SEO industry, but also through online publishing in general." (For information on assessing how Google Panda affected your site -- if you don't already know -- check out this article, published in March 2011, at The Moz Blog.)

Some of the sites deeply affected are wiseGEEK, Suite101 (suspended publishing in March this year), and ArticlesBase, which lost 94% of its traffic when Panda was launched.  More sites were affected; these were chosen at random.

I guess my point is not all improvements are completely for the best, something is often lost. I, for one, will miss Suite101.

-- Marge