A HISTORY OF SEARCHA look back on the history of search from internet giant, Google: From Penguin, Panda and Hummingbird, we travel back to see how organic search has evolved over the past two decades

Google toolbar

‘00

Google algorithm updates

‘02

• Co-owned domains

• Backlink

analysis

• Regular indexing and updates

• AI and spam

• Keyword stuffing

‘03

NOFOLLOW links and poor quality spam content

‘04

• Google Maps

• Paid links

• Duplicate content

• Poor redirects

‘05

Universal search display (images/ videos)

‘07

• Google ‘suggests’

• Duplicate content

• Fastercrawling

• Real-time updates

‘09

• Thin content

• Search speed

• Multiple visibility

• Instant updates

• Negative reviews

• Social updates

‘10

• Google+

• Black hat SEO penalties

• Google Panda 1+2

• Spam against guidelines

• Fresh content

• Search queries

• Site link expansion

‘11

• Google ad space

• Local searches

• Video quality

• Penguin updates

• AI data and local

‘12

• Hummingbird

• SERPS

• Spam sites

• Recovery updates

• Fresh quality content

‘13

• Data refresh

• Payday loans

• Authorship

• Localisation

• HTPPS

‘14

• Mobilegeddon

• Rankbrain

• Desktop and mobile queries

• AdWords change

‘15

• AMP project

• Local rankings

• Penguin 4.0

• Mobile-first

‘16

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