Although I had considered reporting on this yesterday, it now appears that the migration of new results across most of Google's datacenters is near completion. The 'sandbox' - the unexplained factor affecting thousands of newer websites appears to have ended for many websites. I have not yet completed a full survey, but dozens of searches are displaying many newer websites in the top 10-20.

The end of the sandbox is a boon to many SEOs and webmasters, but it is also somewhat disheartening. The SEO world was unable to come up with a solution for the filter over the course of 11 months (March 2004-Feb. 2005), and only Google's own internal changes seem to have let sites 'escape'. There appear to be suggestions that some sites are still being affected by the filter, but it will be difficult to determine the cause or source without direct evidence.

Speculation surrounding the causes of the sandbox ending for these sites include the beginnings of MSN's new advertising blitz, the recent suggestion at SEW, SEOChat & other search industry mainstays that Google's results were becoming less relevant and even the possible need for a shakeup in order to discourage more advanced analysis from the SEO world. I will keep SEOmoz readers up-to-date on this occurence as more is known.