internetheaven - 12:32 pm on May 24, 2010 (gmt 0)

Surely there has been some catastrophy at google that they cannot tell us about

It really is starting to look that way. Most of us have seen a decade's-worth of Google updates. This doesn't look like a roll-out, it doesn't look like a "software update", it doesn't look like AI with a learning curve, it doesn't even look like progress despite the new flashy layout.

It looks and acts broken, with glimpses of repair work being attempted and roll outs being quickly followed by roll backs. But, like a broken clock which is right twice a day, it's not broken enough to lose more than a couple of percent of users to Bing. And Google's PPC results are incredibly good, better than organics in most cases.