Last week Google announced a search algorithm update which would impact nearly 12% of all queries. The update was aimed to reduce visibility of “low-quality sites” from the SERP (Search engine Results Page). It has only been released in the US so far, but it has already caused quite a stir…

Although Google has never explicitly stated it the new update is an attempt to crack down on content farms like eHow, answerbag.com and other Demand Media sites. However the effect on page rankings in the US alone have been unexpected to say the least.

Many content farm sites have seen their rankings reduced, but they’re not the only ones seeing a negative impact on their search engine rankings. Several sites which create their own unique content were slammed, losing in some cases over 90% of their Google spots.

cultofmac.com, an Apple-focused blog which produces it’s own unique content has seen 96% of it’s Google spots disappear in the past week!

ehow.com has actually seen improvements in it’s Google visibility and search engine traffic, so the update has actually removed some of it’s competition and boosted it’s traffic.

It hasn’t been a very good week for Google, on Monday 0.02% (about 35, 000) Gmail users logged onto their accounts only to find ALL of the emails missing. According to the Google’s Gmail blog the error was caused by an update that created a software bug which infected Google’s online backups of the accounts, so they’ve had to bring in the back-up tapes to restore the accounts.

Let us know if your site has been affected by the update whether it’s good or bad news.