Late last week, Google confirmed a major update to the infamous Panda algorithm. Quickly discovered by Danny Sullivan, it appeared that Searchmetrics had done a great job outlining who was hurt and who wasn’t.  Let’s take a look at that first.

Who did well

Corporate media clearly seemed to benefit from this update, especially News Corporation properties Fox News and The Wall Street Journal.   More significantly, perhaps, we can see a clear trend in improved performance by sites that contain a lot of video and audio (tv.com, ign.com, youtube.com), which even includes the previously mentioned mainstream media.  Take a look.

Google says yes.  While some may question the advantage of multiple ip hosting in certain situations, in many circumstances, there is no room for questioning.  One such area is where internationalization is concerned.
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Although it’s now well over six months since the infamous Google Panda Update that shook the SEO world to it’s core, many webmasters still have not regained their rankings. Now more than ever, the quality of on-page content matters. If your site(s) have lost their ranking due to the Google Panda update, there is hope.  Here are 11 things that you can start in on right now to rectify these issues.

Look at how a simple Google search for computer monitors has changed in the past year (below).  Study it.  It may not be long before all of your search results look this way.

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Will your site be taking advantage?

It’s now official, the Google +1 button designed for websites will be officially released tomorrow.  One of Google’s launch partners reportedly leaked news of the release to TechCrunch, who later confirmed that this is indeed true.

In a blog by Danny Sullivan made earlier today. Google confirmed that all webmasters will be able to get the +1 button through a self-serve process. The +1 button will essentially work like the Facebook ‘like’ and Twitter ‘tweet’ buttons now ubiquitous across the web in terms of implementation.

Back in January, Google snuck a new feature into their search results that remained overlooked by many of their users.  The now infamous Social Search. Are you one of those that weren’t aware of the change?

Well,last week, this new feature finally went live on Google globally. Despite many largely failed pushes into social media like Buzz, Orkut, and Wave under their belt, I personally believe that this is one move by Google that will stick, for one simple reason:  it keeps Google within the confines of what they’re trusted to do, and do well-  search. Need more evidence?

Look how worried they’ve made Facebook.