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PUBLISHED: Aug 28, 2009 3 min read

Google Caffeine Algorithm Change: What is It?

Google Will Be Going Through A Major Algorithm Change

Google Caffeine has a lot of chatter, but some folks may still want to know what it is all about.

Their labeling the project as “Caffeine”.  Google Caffeine is said to be more accurate, faster and relevant search engine results.  BING has just been in the works with many contracts and has become a major competitor (or sales challenge) for Google with all the attention it has been receiving.

Google Caffeine Is Not A Small Change
The algorithm change is being compared to the 2003 Google “Florida” incident, where many high ranking websites disappeared from the search engine all together.  SEO Services professionals and marketers learned to take notice of any major algorithm change.

“On November 16th 2003, Google commenced an update (the Florida update) which had a catastrophic effect for a very large number of websites and, in the process, turned search engine optimization on its head. It is usual to give alphabetical names to Google’s updates in the same way that names are given to hurricanes, and this one became known as “Florida”.
In a nutshell, a vast number of pages, many of which had ranked at or near the top of the results for a very long time, simply disappeared from the results altogether. Also, the quality (relevancy) of the results for a great many searches was reduced. In the place of Google’s usual relevant results, we are now finding pages listed that are off-topic, or their on-topic connections are very tenuous to say the least. ”

Sandbox Tests of Google Caffeine Change Daily
Google is now giving web users an opportunity to test it out and see how it does in the rankings. Here is a link to Google Caffeine:

https://www2.sandbox.google.com/

Our inital tests have yielded a lot of inconsistant results on some test measures, but there seem to be some clear advantages to the new algorithm.  Speed tests indicate that search results are about 100-150% faster then the current algorithm.  What is inconsistent is the accuracy and page results on a lot of search queries.

Don’t Sweat Results Just Yet, But Get Familiar
As Google refines this we should see a lot of changes happening.  We have notices a less map results and less news coverage in the organic ranks.  These are indications that Google Caffiene is not fully integrated so don’t sweat the results just yet.

Ciao…Jennifer G

Jennifer Gayadin is a Search Strategist for Amsive Digital, a NYC Search Marketing Firm

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