[bhartzer]

I think the problem is that the "Panda" algorithm seems to essentially have the same criteria for all sites. Depending on the topic of the site (i.e., ecommerce site selling products or a ticket site selling tickets), lots of pages tend to have the same content. Some product pages have the same product in a different color, or the ticket site is selling the same tickets some other site on the web is selling.

I get that Panda can be helpful, help identify "low quality" content. But the true definition of "low quality" changes depending the industry and the category of products being sold.

A good algorithm should be able to distinguish between the various sites or topics of sites, and apply said algorithm differently, right?

[jaredmck]

I would agree - however, it seems like Google is in a position where their algorithm doesn't necessarily have to be good, just good enough. And good enough basically means they don't torch any high-profile sites that would begin to make the public question whether or not Google is still the best search engine. Unfortunately, this means that many smaller businesses might get thrown out with the bathwater :(

[cgingrich]

For sure - I've seen eCommerce sites intentionally bloat category pages with tons of written content for the sake of not appearing thin. That's definitely not the experience that users want. I will say though that I've tended to see a little bit more of objectivity specifically on eComm sites with the algorithm being more forgiving on sheer volume of content (though not in this case).

It's definitely hard and algorithms will get better with time as Google understands more and more of the web, but in the meantime, give us a heads up so we can fix it :)

[bhartzer]

Intentionally bloating category pages with tons of written content, unfortunately, is the result of Panda. Sure it's not good for users, but that's what happened, simply because those ecommerce sites had to adapt if they were going to compete or have a leg up over their competition.

And I'm not sure if Google took that into consideration when they launched Panda. If they had, we wouldn't be seeing the intentional bloat.

[bhartzer]

The same exact thing happened when Google launched Penguin. I bet Google didn't realize that they would start a whole new industry, the shady industry of making site owners pay money to get low quality links removed. But I digress...