SEO Timeline

Timeline created by Richard Falconer in Science and Technology

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Event Date:	Event Title:	Event Description:
28th Jun, 1998	1998 Larry Page and Sergey Brin introduce PageRank	Larry Page and Sergey Brin introduce PageRank, a Web document citation ranking methodology based on link relationships.
1st Jul, 2001	Image search Launches	Image Search launches, offering access to 250 million images.
1st Sep, 2002	Google launches Google News	Google launches Google News, which uses the Hilltop algorithm devised by Krishna Bharat and George A. Mih?il?. Google Newshttp://www.alternet.org/story/14239/
1st Dec, 2002	Froogle Launches (later becomes Google Product Search)	Froogle Launches (later becomes Google Product Search)
28th Jun, 2003	2003 “Google bombing” born	Bloggers coin the expression “Google bombing” and launch the widespread practice of pointing collaborative links at otherwise irrelevant documents to manipulate query results.
28th Jul, 2003	2003 Google introduces the Supplemental Results Index,	Google introduces the Supplemental Results Index, a repository for documents Google doesn’t quite know what to do with. Many of these documents are duplicate content pages.
28th Oct, 2003	Google Florida update	Google launches the infamous “Florida” update. Many SEOs wrongly conclude that Google has suddenly adopted the Hilltop algorithm.
14th Nov, 2003	Google Florida Update	Webmaster World Florida Thread
12th Feb, 2004	Google Brandy Update	Webmaster World Thread
1st Mar, 2004	Google Sandbox Effect	Google adjusts its algorithm to look at links in a new way. An apparent unintended side effect is the so-called “Google Sandbox Effect”, whereby sites with few to no trusted links cannot rank even for their own names.
1st Nov, 2004	Google begins updating its index on a weekly basis	Google begins updating its index on a weekly basis (until now it had been updating monthly).
2nd Feb, 2005	Google Allegra Update	Webmaster World Thread
20th May, 2005	Google Bourbon Update	Webmaster World Thread
1st Jul, 2005	De-indexing directories	Google begins de-indexing and/or ignoring links from faux directories and and some Web sites that share certain design features of faux directories.
15th Sep, 2005	Google Jagger Update	Webmaster World Thread
1st Nov, 2005	Google de-indexes more faux directories in volume.	Google de-indexes more faux directories in volume.
1st Dec, 2005	Bigdaddy update	Google begins rolling out the Bigdaddy update. Bigdaddy introduces a new infrastructure, a dual-index crawl, and re-engineers the Supplemental Index to absorb many low-PageRank documents.
10th Jan, 2006	PageRank is being used to determine the index to which documents are assigned	Matt Cutts writes on his blog that PageRank is being used to determine the index to which documents are assigned.
1st Sep, 2006	Supplemental Index pages are not fully indexed	Search Engine Roundtable reports that Supplemental Index pages are not fully indexed (this is later confirmed by Google).
1st Dec, 2006	An internal Federal Trade Commission letter discussing paid endorsements is leaked to the news media.	An internal Federal Trade Commission letter discussing paid endorsements is leaked to the news media.
1st Apr, 2007	Matt Cutts suggests that paid links should be disclosed	Matt Cutts suggests that paid links should be disclosed, implying that they may fall under the FTC paid endorsement policy.
1st May, 2007	Universal Search	Google follows in the footsteps of A9 and Ask by unveiling the Searchology Update, introducing “Google 3.0″, which emphasizes Universal Search (injecting results from News, Blog, Books, and other search indexes into Main Web search results).
1st Jun, 2007	Matt Cutts introduces the concept of “Peanut Butter SEO”	Matt Cutts introduces the concept of “Peanut Butter SEO” at the first SMX Advanced conference in Seattle, explaining that “each site gets only so much PageRank” and it can only be spread so far like peanut butter on bread.
1st Jun, 2007	PageRank sculpting is born	Dan Thies proposes using “rel=’nofollow’” on some internal pages such as shopping cart pages etc.
1st Jul, 2007	Google says it is no longer useful to include the “Supplemental Result” label in search results.	Google says it is no longer useful to include the “Supplemental Result” label in search results.
1st Sep, 2007	PageRank Sculpting goes insane	Dan Thies revises his internal nofollow position to favor the use of nofollow on more internal pages. The “PageRank sculpting” controversy goes into overdrive from this point on as the SEO community divides.
1st Oct, 2007	Google declares war on paid links.	Google declares war on paid links.
30th Jan, 2008	Supplemental Index Still Alive	Google’s Supplemental Index still alive and still preventing legitimate content from ranking above less relevant results in the Main Web Index.
19th May, 2010	Google Font API and Directory	Google Font API and directory
9th Nov, 2010	Google Instant Previews	Google Instant Previews
17th Dec, 2010	New Hacked Sites Notification in Google Results	New Hacked Site Notification in Results
3rd Feb, 2011	Google Webmaster Tools Search Query Update	GWT Search Queries Update
11th Feb, 2011	Linking Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics	Linking Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics
24th Feb, 2011	Google Panda Update 1.0	Google's Announcement Google Panda Update 1.0
24th Feb, 2011	Google Recipe View	Google Recipe View
24th Mar, 2011	Google TV Shows in Video Sitemaps & mRSS	Google TV Shows in Video Sitemaps & mRSS
28th Mar, 2011	Google Plus One Button	Google Plus One
31st Mar, 2011	Google Page Speed Online w/ Mobile Support	Page Speed Online
11th Apr, 2011	Google Panda Update 2.0	Google's Announcement Google Panda Update 2.0
6th May, 2011	Google Instant Previews Flash Support	Flash Support for Instant Previews
10th May, 2011	Google Panda Update 2.1	Google Panda Update 2.1
11th May, 2011	Google Page Speed Online New API	Page Speed Online New API
17th May, 2011	Google Webmaster Tools Easier URL Removal	Easier URL Removal
18th May, 2011	Google Webmmaster Tools Troubleshoot Instant Previews	Google Webmaster Tools Troubleshooting Instant Previews
1st Jun, 2011	Google Plus One For Websites Launched	Google PLus One Button
2nd Jun, 2011	Schema.org	Schema.org
7th Jun, 2011	Google Authorship Markup	Google Authorship Markup
14th Jun, 2011	Google Instant Pages (on Chrome for developers)	Google Instant Pages (on Chrome for developers)
17th Jun, 2011	Google HTTP rel canonical	Google HTTP rel canonical
20th Jun, 2011	ICANN Approve gTLDs	ICANN Approve gTLDs
21st Jun, 2011	Google Panda Update 2.2	Google Panda Update 2.2
21st Jun, 2011	Blekko Zorro Update	Blekko Zorro Update
Timespan Dates:	Timespan Title:	Timespan Description:
1st Jan, 1995 to 21st Jun, 2011	bigmouthmedia SEO Timeline	bigmouthmedia
1st Feb, 2005 to 1st May, 2005	URL only results	Google dumps millions of documents from its index, resulting in many queries that are flooded with so-called “URL-only” results, although many older sites simply vanish altogether or show 2-year-old data. The search results return to normal around May.