Google Begins Rolling Out Panda 4.0 Now

Google’s Matt Cutts announced on Twitter that they have released version 4.0 of the Google Panda Algorithm.

After a number of twist with the last panda  update over time, Google now have released what is believed to be a most important update to the real algorithm versus just a data refresh.

Google’s Panda Algorithm is designed to avoid sites with worth content from working their way into Google’s peak search results.But didn’t Google end updating us on Panda refreshes and updates since they are monthly rolling updates? Yes, but this is a bigger update.

Is this the gentler Panda algorithm? From talking to Google, it sounds like this update will be softer for some sites.

Here are the previous confirmed Panda updates, note, that we named them by every refresh and update, but 4.0 is how Google named this particular update:

1. Panda Update 1, Feb. 24, 2011 (11.8% of queries; announced; English in US only) 
2. Panda Update 2, April 11, 2011 (2% of queries; announced; rolled out in English internationally) 
3. Panda Update 3, May 10, 2011 (no change specified; confirmed, not announced) 
4. Panda Update 4, June 16, 2011 (no change specified; confirmed, not announced) 
5. Panda Update 5, July 23, 2011 (no change specified; confirmed, not announced) 
6. Panda Update 6, Aug. 12, 2011 (6-9% of queries in many non-English languages; announced) 
7. Panda Update 7, Sept. 28, 2011 (no change specified; confirmed, not announced) 
8. Panda Update 8, Oct. 19, 2011 (about 2% of queries; belatedly confirmed) 
9. Panda Update 9, Nov. 18, 2011: (less than 1% of queries; announced) 
10. Panda Update 10, Jan. 18, 2012 (no change specified; confirmed, not announced) 
11. Panda Update 11, Feb. 27, 2012 (no change specified; announced) 
12. Panda Update 12, March 23, 2012 (about 1.6% of queries impacted; announced) 
13. Panda Update 13, April 19, 2012 (no change specified; belatedly revealed) 
14. Panda Update 14, April 27, 2012: (no change specified; confirmed; first update within days of another) 
15. Panda Update 15, June 9, 2012: (1% of queries; belatedly announced) 
16. Panda Update 16, June 25, 2012: (about 1% of queries; announced) 
17. Panda Update 17, July 24, 2012:(about 1% of queries; announced) 
18. Panda Update 18, Aug. 20, 2012: (about 1% of queries; belatedly announced) 
19. Panda Update 19, Sept. 18, 2012: (less than 0.7% of queries; announced) 
20. Panda Update 20 , Sept. 27, 2012 (2.4% English queries, impacted, belatedly announced 
21. Panda Update 21, Nov. 5, 2012 (1.1% of English-language queries in US; 0.4% worldwide; confirmed, not announced) 
22. Panda Update 22, Nov. 21, 2012 (0.8% of English queries were influenced; confirmed, not announced) 
23. Panda Update 23, Dec. 21, 2012 (1.3% of English queries were influenced; confirmed, announced) 
24. Panda Update 24, Jan. 22, 2013 (1.2% of English queries were influenced; confirmed, announced) 
25. Panda Update 25, March 15, 2013 (confirmed as coming; not confirmed as having happened)