Another update by Google of its search ranking algorithm has caused anger amongst several businesses which according to CNNMoney had a negative impact on their websites traffic! Many businesses rely on search engines to drive traffic to their sites mainly on Google search engine as it is by far the most used engine. According to Google the goal of the new algorithm or changes is to move high-quality sites at the top of the search rankings. They (Google) were being criticized by many users that low quality sites were ranking high. It is quite normal that minor changes to the algorithm are performed on regular basis but this change was big and had immediate drastic effects,hopefully for improved search results!
The IP address 64.233.179.104 would allow you to compare the old algorithm against the new one, where results from the 64.233.179.104 search would appear as they would have appeared before the latest changes. Check your website or blog, mine has lost some places but to more relevant content. It’s kind of a dirty game – some gain some lose. You find some businesses that focus entirely on SEO techniques to get their sites ranked higher and tend to forget about unique content, about the services or products they provide and about ethical issues! While Google tries to crack down on sites that try to fool the system, so often the new countermeasures manage to penalize legitimate websites as well.
For more details read Google’s blog post – Finding more high-quality sites in search