londrum - 1:43 pm on Mar 24, 2012 (gmt 0)

i think his quote is a bit disingenious.

if google made an algo change that made users leave in droves, dropping their profits, then of course they'd change it back. because they are a company like any other. the reason they want to improve the SERPs is to attract more users, and hence make more money.

if this new panda thing improved the SERPs, but resulted in a halving of profits, do you really think they wouldn't change it back?

google are not a non-profit organisation. so in that sense, every big algo change has to take on board the change in profit