Outdated Confidence: high
Source found and quoted correctly, but old enough that the market has changed.
Safe rephrasing
Google says it made 4,781 launches to Search in 2023 after more than 700,000 experiments; the old '500–600 updates a year' figure is long out of date.
What the source says
In 2023, we ran over 700,000 experiments that resulted in more than 4,000 improvements to Search. We evaluate Search in multiple ways. In 2023, we ran: 4,781 launches 16,871 live traffic experiments 719,326 search quality tests
Google — How Search Works: Rigorous testing
- Commonly cited as
- "Google updates its algorithm 500–600 times per year"
- True origin
- Google — How Search Works: Rigorous testing
- Type
- Stat check: A widely repeated statistic traced back to its origin.
- Year
- 2024
- Data as of
- 2023 figures
- Last checked
- Method & sample
- Google's own count of Search launches and evaluations for 2023.
- Drift between quote and source
- Age: '500–600' dates from around 2010; Google reported 4,781 launches in 2023
- Most launches are small; only a few a year are announced 'core updates'
- Interest
- Google describing its own processes.