mfishy - 12:22 pm on Oct 5, 2004 (gmt 0)

Sorry Boaz, but new sites do not invariably go into the sandbox.

Yes, not all new sites go into the sandbox.

People would do better to think of it as an algo, like Florida on steoroids, with tightened dupe filters also

I tend to agree except it is pretty obvious that age is a significant factor in this algo. I actually have pretty solid proof of this but am not at liberty to share the research here.

From what I see, and we done extensive research, very few exisitng sites were affected by the algo change which started in the early spring. The exception is, of course, huge datafeed sites. Also, there was a period in the spring where sites were popping out of the sandbox after a couple of months as though there was a holding period. So, it is quite interesting to see older sites with very similar attributes to newer sites rank on key terms while the newer sites seem to never really catch on.

If google is intending for this lag to exist, they really aren't helping their existing index in any way, as much of the same junk that was there in February is still there - it is a case of old vs. new junk I suppose :)