The massive rate of change Google engaged in for a full year has slowed down.
Just in relation to Search, 2010 brought us Caffeine, May Day, Instant Search, integrated Place pages and a host of other monumental changes.
The last of those was in October and since then, things have been (relatively) quiet.
We can use the break.
Frankly, we are all still finding out all the consequences of some of those later changes.