How Google’s Penguin Update Got Its Name

Danny Sullivan just announced that Google has officially named its recent webspam update “The Penguin Update”.  Danny provides some background on how Google names updates like “Panda” and some of the commenters speculate on how Google came up with “Penguin”.

My $0.02:  Googlers are geeks.  Geeks like comic books.

From the Wikipedia entry for Penguin (comics):

“The Penguin (Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot) is a DC Comics supervillain and one of Batman‘s oldest, most persistent enemies.”

Webspammers are search engine supervillains and one of Matt Cutt’s oldest, most persistent enemies

“The Penguin is a short, rotund man known for his love of birds and his specialized high-tech umbrellas.”

Webspammers are short, rotund men that use specialized high-tech tools to spam Google while hiding behind IP proxies that are kind of like SEO umbrellas.

“A mobster and thief, he fancies himself a “gentleman of crime”; his nightclub business provides a cover for more low-key criminal activity, which Batman tolerates as a source of criminal underworld information.”

Webspammers fancy themselves “gentlemen of SEO”; their seemingly legit exact-match domain sites provide a cover for more low-key linkspam and content spinning, which Matt Cutts tolerates as a source of criminal underworld information.”

QED

And yes I am procrastinating…