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Google has released the first Penguin algorithm update last Friday, right before the three-day Memorial Day weekend. Matt Cutts broke the news via Twitter and said that the update would affect less that tenth percent of English searches.

It is the first official announcement on a Google Penguin update (“data refresh” in Cutts’ words) since the update release about a month ago. The announcement put an end to all the rumors about additional Penguin updates that took place during that month.

Google has explained the Google update, which was originally known as the Webspam update, as an algorithm change that meant to help users find websites that provide a good user experience and make it difficult for them to find sites that violate Google quality guidelines (by dropping their ranking). A few days after the first Penguin update, Google has allowed webmasters who have found themselves unjustly hurt by the algorithm change to appeal against the hit using a special application form.