Google has announced a major update of its search engine algorithm. Known as 'Hummingbird', the update represents a major shift in direction for the search engine, which can now deal with longer search queries that are more complex in nature.
News of the update came on the company’s 15th anniversary and the announcement was made by Google’s senior vice president of search, Amit Singhal. The announcement was made from the garage Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin used as their office when the company was founded in Menlo Park, California on September 26, 2013. The garage was formerly owned by senior Google executive, Susan Wojcicki.
Over the last 15 years Goolge has become the main search engine player with its competition not coming anywhere close to matching its current performance. In August the company reported covering 67 percent of the search market. Competitor Bing took in 17.9 percent of the market, Yahoo! Only took in only 11.3 percent of search activity.
Yesterday’s announcement suggested that "Hummingbird" was actually launched around a month ago and its changes have already impacted around 90 percent of Google’s global searches.
Hummingbird reflects increased levels of sophistication in Internet usage. Searches are now more complex and matching the meaning of the text with the content of a specific website has become increasingly more difficult. It is now no longer possible to rely on the meaning of ‘keywords’ within a search string for Google to guide a user to the Internet website they require.
The rise in mobile search has compounded the issue. Search has increasingly become more conversational as people use mobile devices to ask Google direct questions rather than simply adding a single word for Google to search for. Hummingbird will make search more conversational, a precursor to when wearable technology like “Google Glass” becomes the norm.
What’s going to be the impact of Hummingbird? Let us know your views. Add your comments below.
