The head of Google’s webspam team, Matt Cutts has announced he will be taking a leave absence from the company.Cutts who has been with the company since 2000, is known for his YouTube videos which breakdown Google’s algorithms and search process.
Cutts posted the announcement on his personal blog on Thursday July 3rd, giving the following statement:
“I wanted to let folks know that I’m about to take a few months of leave. When I joined Google, my wife and I agreed that I would work for 4-5 years, and then she’d get to see more of me. I talked about this as recently as last month and as early as 2006. And now, almost fifteen years later I’d like to be there for my wife more. I know she’d like me to be around more too, and not just physically present while my mind is still on work.
So we’re going to take some time off for a few months. My leave starts next week. Currently I’m scheduled to be gone through October. Thanks to a deep bench of smart engineers and spam fighters, the webspam team is in more-than-capable hands.”
The webspam team plans to continue answering emails and hosting webinars. Cutts also mentions in his post that a variety of Googlers will continue to speak at search conferences.
The jury’s out on how this absence will affect search engine marketing, but you can bet the SEO industry will be following Google’s moves closer than usual in the coming months.
