Over the last couple of years Google has been updating with a variety of algorithm and filter updates intended to create a better more pure result for users and stop SEO (black and white hat) from artificially manipulating the results. Unfortunately, it has caused a number of unexpected side effects on perfectly legitimate sites and missed some blatant spam.

It’s time for Big Daddy.

Google updates used to be monthly, and then quarterly. Google has servers around the world now and updates seem to roll around one or two at a time. The latest update is Big Daddy and has more than it’s share of detractors.
Pages seem to go from a first page ranking to a spot on the 100th page or worse yet to the Supplemental index (basically Google’s storage/garbage can for old and out of date content).
The Google algorithm changes started in November 2003 with the Florida update which now ranks as a legendary event in the SEM community.
Guaranteed placement? I hear clients and SEM service providers alike clamor about this extinct if not Mythical creature; witness Google hurricane ‘Florida’.

Then there were updates Austin, Brandy, Bourbon, and Jagger.
Now we are dealing with the BigDaddy!

With all the latest uproar in the SEM world over the whole Big Daddy update to Google, it seems certain 2 things are changing Reciprocal links and keyword stuffing (on page) will no longer rank one higher and in the end may even be cause for penalization. The exact effects are yet to be seen though many have done preliminary testing that corroborates these points.
According to Google’s chief search engineer Matt Cutts. In a January 4 post on his Blog, Cutts said that might happen in early February or March of this year.
Supposedly such a ‘Big deal’ is our new ‘Big Daddy’ (hmm is he related to Big Brother?) that Rob Sullivan, head organic search strategist at search marketing firm Enquiro, quipped “If an algorithm update is like putting new tires on a car or installing a new stereo system, this BigDaddy is like putting in a whole new motor. They’re totally revamping how Google works and resolving some long-standing issues with getting sites indexed properly.”

Sullivan goes on to say, “This will lay the groundwork for more advanced algorithms, larger databases, and being able to index different types of content more effectively,” he says. For example, Google has also begun using a search crawler built on a Mozilla browser. The new search bot is more flexible, seems faster and can read non-text content more readily; that should mean that in time, it will be able to read links within images and even within Flash video, matter that gets ignored by bots that can’t speak Javascript.
“As Web technology develops and we get richer and more interactive Web sites, [the search engines] can’t just stick with just indexing hyperlinks and text,” Sullivan says. “They’re going to have to do everything.”

So it’s evolution, more of the same old thing.

I personally have never even done more than read the odd ‘black hat’ SEO or SEM post on a forum somewhere in a room with the lights out, never mind ever considering the techniques. So I am in favor of all the methodologies that enhance the end user experience. That is what I care about.
As far as freaking out about ever changing algorithms (algos in babble speak) I never want things to stop evolving. Sure it can be frustrating for the professional SEO/SEM firm, but it’s also a challenge to keep up with the times.

So keep your eye’s and ears open and get good testing and metrics tools in place to keep up with the Joneses.

Further Reading;
More on recent algorithm issues here;
More on Big Daddy;
Matt Cutts Blog;
Here is an overview of a coming updates to all Google datacenters expected in February or March of 2006