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"Despite it being the month of December, which normally means it is slow, it was a pretty busy month.  The past week or so has been dead, so not much to report in the first week of January, but in terms of Google news related to webmasters - the past 30-days or so were wild.  Google deployed their authorship reduction this month.  We spotted two other shifts in rankings that Google denied.  Google did penalize Anglo Rank and Backlinks.com's link networks - while giving a ten-day penalty to Rap Genius for unnatural links. Google's Matt Cutts promised an authority algorithm soon, while accidentally pushing out a PageRank update.  He also promised to break the spirits of black hat spammers.Plus so much more!  See the topics below for hand picked topics that I felt are the most important Google-webmaster related stories for the month.  Also, check out the December post.Updated: Did The Authorship Reduction In Google Begin? Yes.\r\nGoogle December 19th Ranking Fluctuations Reported\r\nDid Google Soften The EMD Algorithm?\r\nMatt Cutts: Google Tries To Minimize Search Updates Before Holidays\r\nGoogle Continues Work On Promoting Topic Authorities\r\nGoogle Shocks Webmasters By Updating Toolbar PageRank Before Year End\r\nBacklinks.com: The Next Link Network Penalized By Google\r\nGoogle's Matt Cutts Calls Out Nailing Another Link Network\r\nGoogle Penalty Notifications Sent To Anglo Rank Link Buyers\r\nAnglo Rank Promises To Rebuild After Google Link Penalty\r\nRap Genius' Link Scheme Goes Public Leading To Google Penalty\r\nRap Genius Back After 10-Day Penalty\r\nGoogle's Matt Cutts: Our Algorithms Try To Break Black Hat SEOs Spirits\r\nMatt Cutts: Google's Hummingbird Algorithm Affects 90% Of Searches\r\nGoogle: You Must Wait A Few Weeks To Submit A Reconsideration Requests\r\nGoogle's Matt Cutts Tells Webmaster The Penguin Algorithm Is Impacting Rankings\r\nGoogle Sharing More About What Their Algorithms Think\r\nPlugRush Adult Ad Network Might Harm Your Google Rankings\r\nGoogle's Matt Cutts Agrees, Guest Blogging Is Getting Out Of Hand\r\nGoogle Structured Data Dashboard Adds Error Reports\r\nLink Spammers Beat Yandex, Forcing Yandex to Change AlgorithmForum discussion at WebmasterWorld."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<https://www.seroundtable.com/january-2014-google-webmaster-report-17920.html>