Google has announced an update

[Neil]

Google has announced an update but unlike previous updates, this notice has been released BEFORE the update has been released!

Looks like they are moving towards much better user experience but don't panic too much as the planned changes to the ranking algo will not happen until next year, plus they have stated they will provide at least six months notice beforehand, is Google going soft....!

Here is a little excerpt of what they had to say

Through both internal studies and industry research, users show they prefer sites with a great page experience. In recent years, Search has added a variety of user experience criteria, such as how quickly pages load and mobile-friendliness, as factors for ranking results. Earlier this month, the Chrome team announced Core Web Vitals, a set of metrics related to speed, responsiveness and visual stability, to help site owners measure user experience on the web.

Today, we’re building on this work and providing an early look at an upcoming Search ranking change that incorporates these page experience metrics. We will introduce a new signal that combines Core Web Vitals with our existing signals for page experience to provide a holistic picture of the quality of a user’s