2022 Updates
Data Center Outage — August 9, 2022
ConfirmedAn accident at a Google data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa may have resulted in massive ranking fluctuations, with MozCast hitting a historical high of 123.6°F. In some cases, searchers could not access results at all. Search results appeared to normalize the next day.
May 2022 Core Update — May 25, 2022
ConfirmedOn May 25th, Google announced the rollout of a core update. The rollout lasted roughly 2 weeks and was completed on June 9th. MozCast recorded peak ranking flux at 103.0°F on May 25th, the first day of the rollout. As with most Core Updates, Google did not provide specifics.
March 2022 Product Reviews Update — March 23, 2022
ConfirmedGoogle confirmed a significant product reviews update and changed the naming convention to match the Core Updates. The update officially took 19 days to roll out, starting on March 23rd, and built on previous product review updates to identify high quality product reviews.
Unnamed Update — March 18, 2022
UnconfirmedMultiple SERP trackers picked up high flux around March 18-19, with MozCast peaking at 101.1°F on March 18th. No update was officially confirmed, and Danny Sullivan of Google tweeted that "I did check, no one knows of any broad, major update."
Page Experience Update (Desktop) — February 22, 2022
ConfirmedGoogle announced that the Page Experience Update previously released on mobile SERPs would be rolled out to desktop. This rollout officially occurred from February 22nd to March 3rd. MozCast peaked at 99.4°F on March 3rd and 98.8°F on February 23rd.
Unnamed Update — February 5, 2022
UnconfirmedMozCast measured historically high ranking flux of 105.4°F on February 5th, with a possible aftershock of 102.5°F on February 7th. Some other flux trackers picked up similar spikes, but no update was officially confirmed.
Unnamed Update — January 10, 2022
UnconfirmedDuring a period of relatively high volatility, MozCast recorded a temperature spike of 102.1°F on January 10th. No Google update was confirmed, but industry chatter picked up ranking changes on January 11th.