On June 17th, we reported about a Google update, Google later confirmed the update as being part of their core algorithm and not related to Panda or Penguin or even HTTPS.
Marcus Tober provided some really interesting insight into this update basically showing how sites with news or fresh content seemed to see the biggest lift from this update. He showed how the Wall Street Journal saw a 19% lift in search visibility in Google, USA Today saw an 11% climb, Business Insider saw a 20% climb. Heck, this site saw a 134% increase according to SearchMetrics.
I am no where near pre Panda 4.1 days but it was a nice uptick. Referrals from Google jumped 25% overall as well.
The interesting part, which may just be coincidence, is that the Google Trends relaunch. Google Trends is now run in almost real-time, which may have given Google better data for their core search feature?
Again, pure speculation on Marcus' part, but could be true.
Take a look at his post over here.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.