This major update by Google started towards the end of January 2006. Unlike Google's usual algorithm updates, this update has included some major hardware and software updates at Google's data centres, and has taken much longer than the usual updates seen in the past. Most irritating, from a search engine optimisation point of view, has been the skewed results often thrown up for the same search terms seen on different computers at very similar geographical positions; or even the same computer at different times in the day. There has been an inherent lack of consistency as the update has been occurring, making search engine result analysis very difficult.
Other problems associated with the update have included seeing the number of backlinks to some sites taking a roller coaster ride, while the number of pages listed for a site in Google's index might drop significantly and show many different results as they are returned from different data centres - some Bigdaddy, some not.
The problems associated with Bigdaddy have led to much panic and confusion as some websites' best results seem to drop significantly in Google's SERPs - occasionally at the drop of a hat - while other sites' see page listings dropping from hundreds of thousands to just hundreds without any changes being made to the site at all. The converse has also been the case, but the unifying theme is 'transitory': nothing is set in stone as the changes are going on.
For many, Bigdaddy has been a nightmare: but the update was reported by Matt Cutts last week to be complete "in a week or two". So there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
It's almost time to wake from the Bigdaddy nightmare and get on with business as usual.
