brinked - 2:10 am on Nov 7, 2010 (gmt 0)

ok to regroup. Here are some observations I have personally witnessed during this change.

1. Google is replacing the homepage with inner pages that either have the same/similar keywords in the title or URL for certain rankings in what seems to be an effort to get users to what they are looking for and not having them taken to an intro or "doorway" page.

2. More sites seem to have mini sitelinks now than before.

3. A lot of lesser quality sites seem to be rising to the top. Perhaps google giving them a chance to see how they will perform and then confirm they are just that: cheap, poor performing sites that will have high bounce rates.

4. sites with the search phrase as the domain name seem to be coming back. Although many have very obvious paid link profiles. This can be related to point #3.

Thoughts: I think google is raising up the poor quality sites so webmasters can report them to google. I dont think its a coincidence that this all happens shortly after google releases the report spam chrome plugin. I think google is essentialls forcing webmasters to report their competition by saying "these crappy competitors will outrank you for your SERP's unless you do something about it"

I am not going to form an opinion of this change because I believe it is not done. I personally love the changes since it benefits most of my sites but I do not believe this will stick. I have already seen some poor quality sites start to drop off and others start to get into the mix.

Google, I sure hope you know what you're doing.