Suite 101 responds

At the end of February, Google applied an algorithm change (for the moment on the English-speaking service). Called the "farmer update", this update had a clearly defined target: content farms. These providers of articles and content produced by unpaid or poorly paid contributors follow editorial principles that enable the boosting of a site's ranking, without really taking into account the quality of the content.

Hard hit by the change implemented by the most well-known of search engines, Suite 101 has responded by publishing an open letter written by its CEO Peter Berger. He feels that Google should desist from putting in place an algorithm that penalises the majority of content producers who work for the same supplier. According to him, to avoid tarnishing its credibility, Google would be best advised to favour a page by page evaluation.