Google's update launched on the 24th April has officially been named "Penguin".

The Penguin algorithm update is intended to punish sites spamming Google with links; or, as legendary engineer Matt Cutts has put it, sites that are "over-optimised".

Search engine spam includes dirty tactics such as "cloaking" and "keyword stuffing".

The update officially went live on Tuesday 24th, and though it can take often several days for Google updates to become effective, the company has confirmed that Penguin is fully implemented.

The Panda 3.5 update was launched 5 days earlier, and unlike Penguin is simply designed to target low quality pages rather than the outright spam that the Penguin update is designed to eliminate.

Unfortunately Google is not prepared to reconsider when Penguin blocks a site. This is an algorithm change; not manual penalty applications.

As with most Google updates, however, agencies doing white hat SEO and performing natural link building; like the DeepRed55 SEO team always do; are not going to suffer any penalty at Penguin's flipper.