crobb305 - 10:21 pm on Dec 11, 2012 (gmt 0)

@crobb305 I've seen The Sandbox with my own eyes (the other domain I've talked about with 1 year of sandbox).

And I've seen with my own eyes domains registered in the past 60 days ranking very well, including one registered in October (2 months ago) ranking in the top 10 for an extremely competitive financial phrase. I will gladly send you examples by private message if you'd like.

Update: almenara, I sent you an example. I no longer believe in sandboxing as we once knew it. I have seen numerous brand new domains ranking extremely well post-Penguin. Granted, they have very rapid/spammy link acquisition, but they rank well nonetheless.

The 'sandbox' has really morphed into 'signals of trust'

CainIV, I had to think about this one for a bit. I would like to think that trust helps to determine whether or not a new domain is sandboxed, but the factors I would associate with trust aren't present on these domains. For instance, there are no third-party certifications, they are registered for only one year, registered within the past 90 days, rapid acquisition of spammy and/or foreign backlinks, no social sharing, no Google+ page, no FB page, etc. These domains are ranking exclusively on their backlinks (and rapid acquisition thereof).

In the past, it was common to see brand new domains soar to the top rapidly, then move down in rankings; but, I've watched some of these domains rank well for several months now. Maybe it will take a Penguin update to catch the crappy links, and give the older, legitimate websites a chance.