Google Search Console, the feature previously known as Google Webmaster Tools, is to start sending notifications to fewer people in respect of average notification types. This is according to Gary Illyes, Google Webmaster Trends Analyst. Google’s intention is that the change will take effect in August and its impact will be limited to the average type of notification only. The change will not impact on the way in which the search engine giant issues notifications to webmasters in respect of more critical messages. Such a message might be for a site that is being hacked, for instance.

As part of the Search Console change, Google will in future notify the direct owner of a site, rather than the property owner. To illustrate how this will work, Illyes included an example in the content of his Google+ post on the subject. At present, if a site called https://example.com/dont/panic/have/a/towel were to trigger a message within the Google Search Console, Google would notify the owners of the following sites:
https://example.com/dont/panic/have/a/towel – the site that triggered the message
https://example.com/dont/panic/have/a
https://example.com/dont/panic/have
https://example.com/dont/panic
https://example.com/dont
https://example.com

Under the change being initiated by Google, the owner of the first site in that list would be the only owner given notification by way of the Google Search Console. Critical messages, such as a hacked site alert, will likely continue to be received by all parent site owners.

Illyes has also been busy responding to queries about Google Penguin, the set of data refreshes and algorithm updates initiated by the company to better improve the value of search queries. Illyes took to Twitter on 10th July to respond to a query about the next Penguin update, saying that it is “months away.” Illyes hinted as much during the SMX Advanced search marketing conference in Seattle in June, so his latest disclosure should come as no surprise.

Google’s intention is to have Penguin run in real-time, with fresh link data on a continuing basis and an algorithm running in real-time. The last two Penguin updates, 2.1 and 3.0, came in October 2013 and October 2014, respectively. Each of the last two updates impacted on around 1 per cent of search queries.