Google Reader shut down

Google is killing off Reader, its web-based RSS reading service, as part of its latest round of culling little-used or unprofitable products. A spring clean, if you will.
The service will disappear on July 1st, 2013.
Google’s reason for the termination, revealed in a blog post, follows:

“There are two simple reasons for this: usage of Google Reader has declined, and as a company we’re pouring all of our energy into fewer products. We think that kind of focus will make for a better user experience.”

Software Engineer Alan Green penned the post and added that “We know Reader has a devoted following who will be very sad to see it go. We’re sad too.”
Happily, users can extract their RSS subscriptions and use them in another reader using Google Takeout.

Source url : http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/03/14/google_retires_reader/?wc=EWJvGgpmBQVHGxVx

2013 Penguin, Panda & Link Networks Updates

Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts announced new updates with Google’s Penguin and Panda algorithms and new link network targets in 2013. Matt announced this during the SMX West panel, The Search Police.

Significant Penguin Update

Matt said that there will be a large Penguin update in 2013 that he thinks will be one of the more talked about Google algorithm updates this year. Google’s search quality team is working on a major update to the Penguin algorithm, which Cutts called very significant.

Source url  :http://searchengineland.com/googles-matt-cutts-on-upcoming-penguin-panda-link-networks-updates-151273