The SEO and webmaster communities have been waiting for Google to launch a new Penguin refresh for a long time. Google has been promising a new version that will update in real time, so those impacted by it won’t have to wait for Google to push another one to have any hope of recovery. It will instead be constantly updating.

About a month ago, Google’s John Mueller said he expected Penguin to be here before the end of the year. Google’s Gary Illyes said it was in the “foreseeable future” and that he “hoped” it would be here before the end of the year.

Illyes has since been talking about it a little on Twitter with curious parties. Last week, he tweeted (via Search Engine Roundtable) that it’s still not ready for primetime.

It does look like the update is still on track for this year, however. Illeys tweeted that he still expects as much.

Illyes also indicated on Twitter this week that it’s not too late for Penguin to acknowledge disavow files.

As Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Roundtable points out, however, if everything goes according to plan, it should never again be too late because the update will continue in real time once it finally comes.

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