A metaphor gone wrong: “Algorithm updates are car parts while the data refreshes relate to gas”

by Geno Thampi - 8/18/2012 9298 Views

But don’t you fill your car with the same kind of gas?

This is just for some fun this weekend. It is common that people out there have problems with differentiating “Index updates”, “algorithm updates” and “data refreshes”. Thanks to Matt who explained it very well in one of the video QnA sessions. As explained in the video, index updates are the complete revamp of Google index which doesn’t happen very often. As published at “webpronews” by Chris Crum, the definitions for the other two are:

Algorithm update: Typically yields changes in the search results on the larger end of the spectrum. Algorithms can change at any time, but noticeable changes tend to be less frequent.

Data refresh: When data is refreshed within an existing algorithm. Changes are typically toward the less-impactful end of the spectrum, and are often so small that people don’t even notice.

This video is quite old which was published back in April 2012. So probably most of you would have seen the video. However, something interesting came up today with this video. Matt Cutts was using a metaphor to explain the differences. He related the “algorithm updates” to changing the car parts and the “data refreshes” to changing gas. Today this post at webpronews got an interesting comment from Bob: “Worst car analogy ever! I’m pretty sure you should always put the same kind of gas in your car.” But data refreshes aren’t the same isn’t it?

Here is the original video of Matt Cutts which is actually a lot informative except the metaphor that went wrong

Category :

Google

Tags :

Google algorithm update, data refresh, algorithm update explained

About Geno Thampi

Not a born Shakespeare! But I still write articles and blogs to share my ideas and thoughts on SEO and SMO. Being a part of SEO research team of SubmitINme, I keep my ears and eyes open, and the pen ready to grab, write and share trending topics in search engine .... more info