Google’s Caffeine update is almost here. Billed by Google as the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions, Caffeine is not your common or garden Google update.
When Caffeine was announced, Google did something it had never done before: it offered it to the public so they could preview search results with Caffeine and provide feedback. While that preview is no longer with us, it won’t be long till you can get your caffeine hit: according to Google’s Matt Cutts, Caffeine is coming after Christmas.
Cutts revealed the news on his blog:
“The feedback on Caffeine has been very positive, so we’re ready to move from the developer preview to the next stage of the roll out: going live with Caffeine at one data center. This means that a small percentage of Google’s users will benefit from the technology behind Caffeine in their regular searches.”
“I know that webmasters can get anxious around this time of year, so I wanted to reassure site owners that the full Caffeine roll out will happen after the holidays. Caffeine will go live at one data center so that we can continue to collect data and improve the technology, but I don’t expect Caffeine to go live at additional data centers until after the holidays are over. Most searchers wouldn’t immediately notice any changes with Caffeine, but going slowly not only gives us time to collect feedback and improve, but will also minimize the stress on webmasters during the holidays.”
This certainly seems to mark the beginning of Google’s fightback against the slow erosion of market share by Bing – but as the most comprehensive change for some time could create chaos in the SERP’s (Search Engine Page Rankings). It’s also worth noting that page-load times could now play a factor in ranking – bad news for all those flash-heavy homepages.
While it’s still a relative unknown how Caffeine will affect the SERPs, the news that Caffeine won’t be with us before the holidays will certainly help some enjoy more guilt-free revelry at Xmas parties. Any potential shift in the SERPs could understandably create anxiety going into the most important part of the year for many businesses. For a highly-ranked website, a minimal drop in the SERPs say from position 1 to 8 could still have a big financial impact.
Once 2010 begins however, it will be interesting to see if Google has given web-masters a Christmas surprise to relish. For those who can’t wait Matt Cutts has commented that Google will probably reveal the IP address of the data center that gets Caffeine first.
