2011 is behind us, and a new year has begun! For the bloggers, Internet marketers and on-line ecommerce sites, the Google Panda update(s) was probably the biggest thing to happen all last year. A series of updates devastated some sites and left many others scrambling to figure out why, so they wouldn’t be next.
Panda 3.2 on December 19th(unconfirmed)
Panda 3.1 on November 18th
Panda 2.5.3 on October 19/20th
Panda 2.5.2 on October 13th
Panda 2.5.1 on October 9th
Panda 2.5 on September 28th
Panda 2.4 in August
Panda 2.3 on around July 22nd.
Panda 2.2 on June 18th or so.
Panda 2.1 on May 9th or so.
Panda 2.0 on April 11th or so.
Panda 1.0 on February 24th
Some big name sites were hit, particularly those with “thin” content. After all, who really needs to read How to Drink a Glass of Water or wants to sift through a thousand articles on How to Lose Weight?
Of course, as is often the case, many webmasters and SEO consultants screamed “FOUL!”, claiming their sites were unfairly penalized. After a dozen versions have rolled out, people are starting to wise up and focus on decent content on their sites.
To make life more interesting for some Internet marketers, the SOPA bill (Stop Online Piracy Act) was rushed into Congress, ostensibly to protect copyrighted material. Detractors (and there are MANY) point out that if the Act becomes law, it would do little to control piracy but a lot to give the government free rein to censor websites. Supporters are mainly those with the most to gain… the motion picture and recording industries.
Meanwhile, various economies around the world continue to decline, and the furor surrounding the 2012 US election year continues to grow. The political parties dig for dirt on their opponents, the pundits tear apart every campaign promise and the politicians themselves do their dance, providing ample new material for the political cartoonists.
In some ways, 2012 is certain to be like 2011. Strife, greed, hunger and violence will still run rampant. But the new year may bring some new along with the old. Some of the top physicists in the world are working around the clock at CERN, hoping to reveal the Higgs Boson particle, and eventually recreate The Big Bang on a microscopic scale. What we can learn of our universe if they are correct is yet to be seen, but will surely be a fantastic step forward for science.
Medicine has recently made progress in the fight against AIDS. Perhaps 2012 will be the year to stop thousands of unnecessary deaths every month.
So, enter 2012 with optimism. Move ahead with determination. Vow to make history, not repeat it!
Related BOTW Categories:
http://botw.org/top/Society/History/
http://botw.org/top/Science/
http://botw.org/top/Society/Politics/Parties/
http://botw.org/top/Society/Law/
http://botw.org/top/Computers/Consultants/