Well, January was a super busy month probably because of the code freeze as Matt Cutts explained. We had tons of Google updates earlier this month but all were part of the core algorithm. Google told us Panda is part of the core ranking algorithm now but it doesn’t change much of anything.

Google also updated their webmaster guidelines and we documented the changed. Google updated the Google webmaster home and added features to the Search Console. Plus we covered tons of ranking questions answered by Googlers.

The ongoing WebmasterWorld thread is pretty quiet with some small chatter around fluctuations, but nothing yet significant.

Here is the break down of webmaster related changes with Google over the past month:

Google Algorithms:
Special Report: Massive Google Fluctuations Continue; Is It Penguin?
Google Confirms: Core Search Ranking Update Took Place But Not Penguin Related
Extreme Google Search Fluctuations Continue; Not Penguin But Core Update
Google Testing New Search Ranking Algorithms In The Wild?
Wow: Google Panda Is Now Part Of Google’s Core Ranking Algorithm
Google: Nothing Has Changed Now That Panda Being Part Of Core Ranking Algorithm
Google: Panda Both Manual & Automated But Data Roll Out Unaffected
Google: Real Time Penguin Algorithm Should Launch In Weeks
What’s The Diff Google? Now That Panda Is Part Of The Core Algorithm?
Google Panda Score Are Not Generated In Real Time
Google’s John Mueller: I Suspect Panda Updates Will Be More Regular & Faster
Google: Panda Is Part Of Core, But The Weekend’s Core Update Didn’t Have Panda In It
Google: Why It Is So Hard To Confirm All Algorithm Updates
Will Google Release Penguin 4.0 In January 2016? Gary Hasn’t Seen It Yet.
Google: Recent Spammy Content In Search Results Unrelated To Other Google Updates
Google: Webmasters Likely Won’t Notice Future Panda Updates
Google Webmaster:
The New Google Webmaster Guidelines Are Now Live
What Changed In The Google Webmaster Guidelines
Google Revamps Webmaster Home With New Design & Three New Tools
Google Shows AMP Error Report In Google Search Console
Google Crawl Errors For Apps Report Now Updated In The Search Console
Google: Some Of Those SEO Weather Tools Pick Up Wrong Signals
Can SEO Tools Track The Google Weather?
Google: Featured Snippets Don’t Result In Less Search Traffic
Does Google Care About Businesses & Webmasters? Listen For Yourself.
Google Ranking & SEO:
Google: 302 Redirects Pass PageRank
Google: HTTPS URLs Even That Aren’t Valid Still Get Ranking Boost
Google: Google News Publishers Don’t Get A Ranking Boost
Google: Keywords In URLs A Very Small Ranking Factor
Google: Local Reviews Are Not A Web Search Ranking Factor
Google: Outbound Links Are Not A Ranking Factor
Google: Nofollow Unnecessary For Related Post Blog Links
Google: Valid HTML Not Required For Ranking But Can Hurt Structured Data & Mobile Friendliness
Google: Write Your Reconsideration Requests In Your Web Site’s Native Language Or Else…
Google: Do Not To Worry About Unique IP Addresses Or C-Blocks
Google: We Pick Shorter URLs For Canonicalization
Google: Links In Footers Or Sitewides Are Not Given That Much Weight
Google: Title Tags Are Not A Critical Ranking Signal
Google: Title Tags Are A Ranking Factor But Is It A Critical Factor?
Google To Add JSON-LD Support For Rich Snippets
Google: Updating Images Can Take Months; We Don’t Index Them Frequently
Google News May Ignore Your Sitemap’s Timestamp To Avoid Abuse
Google’s FAQ On HTTP To HTTPS Migration
Video: Google AMP Technical Detailed Overview
Google To Step Up Structured Data Support Over The Year
Google May Prevent Sites From Passing PageRank When Links Get Bad

For last month’s recap click here.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.