Well, we’re nearly a week into December now, so time is running out. You’re not going to see Google launc a Penguin update in 2015.

Are you anxiously anticipating Google’s next Penguin launch? Let us know in the comments.

Google has kept webmasters and SEOs expecting a new Penguin update before the end of the year for months, but alas, it is not to be.

Search Engine Land is reporting that Google told them the update won’t be released until next year because of the holidays. Barry Scwhartz reports:

A Google spokesperson told us today, “With the holidays upon us, it looks like the penguins won’t march until next year.”

It’s unclear if that means it would be ready otherwise and what element of the holiday season is impeding its launch. It could be people taking vacation, or it could be that Google doesn’t want to upset the apple cart like it did with the infamous Florida update so long ago. It’s most likely the latter, because last year, there was Penguin-related activity around this time.

But who knows? It could be something else entirely.

The thing with releasing a significant update around the holidays is that this is obviously a major time of the year for many businesses and drastic shifts in search results can be devastating to those on the wrong end of it. Considering that Google’s updates tend to be far from perfect, it would be a shame to see businesses lose out on a lot of customers because of forces out of their control. If the algorithm were perfect and really only negatively impacted spammers that would be one thing, but what are the chances of that?

One article on Penguin and Google’s delay caused a minor stir on Twitter. Jenny Halasz writes, “Google broke the Internet.” The article begins:

Google told us today that the “penguins won’t march again” this year. Marching is a pretty good description, since marching implies a regimented, formalized, “everyone move out of the way” type of procession. I don’t think it’s any mistake that Google used that verb, because every time Penguin has updated (as infrequent as it’s been), it’s “marched all over” website owners. Whether they knew it was coming or not isn’t the issue, and whether they did anything to deserve it, even less so. The issue is that Google is taking a Third Reich type approach to search (Edit: This is meant to be a joke based on Godwin’s law and the early days of usenet, not to equate Google with Hitler). No longer the open opportunity equalizer that search used to be, increasingly small business owners find themselves pushed out, either because they don’t have the budgets to create buzz the way large companies do, or because they don’t have the money to hire good quality SEOs the way that large companies do.

Most SEOs who know aren’t surprised that Google isn’t marching their penguins this year. We saw this coming. In fact, I’ll still be surprised if Penguin ever marches again. Google has already admitted that they will not be able to roll out Penguin in its old style; that it will have to be a real time algorithm that can update fluidly with the rest of the index. What most people don’t realize though, is that Google broke the internet.

Read the whole thing for her thoughts on how Google broke links. Here’s some of the reaction on Twitter (including from Google’s Illyes who interrupted his own vacation to chime in.

It might ultimately be a good thing that Google has delayed the update at this point, but those anxiously awaiting a chance for recovery probably aren’t too happy about it.

Either way, the next Penguin is supposed to be “huge” in that it will be a shift to real-time updating, meaning webmasters and SEOs will no longer have to wait forever to recover when impacted.

Do you want Google to launch the update before the new year? Do you care one way or another? Let us know in the comments.

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