Back in June, Google hinted about a possible Penguin update that had to happen within a month of that announcement. But, Google missed that deadline. http://www.brainpulse.com/articles/seo-sem/real-time-penguin-update.php
Google Penguin is a codename for a Google algorithm update that was first announced on April 24, 2012. The update is aimed at decreasing search engine rankings of websites that violate Google's Webmaster Guidelines by using now declared black-hat SEO techniques involved in increasing artificially the ranking of a webpage by manipulating the number of links pointing to the page. Such tactics are commonly described as link schemes.
How does it help in ranking then?