Google officially announced its new search algorithm “Hummingbird” yesterday night India time. The name ‘Hummingbird’ is supposed to reflect the ‘fast and precise’ nature of its revamped search engine.
Though surreptitiously launched about a month ago, the announcement came only yesterday. Reports suggest that Hummingbird is a complete algorithm rewrite, the next stage in the evolution of Google Search Engine. It aims for a more natural interaction by providing better matching answers to more complex queries.
Till now 2 users searching for a specific subject may not get the same answers or links. That was mainly due to the fact that people had to know what to search for - the so called ‘keyword’. But today, searches are getting more complex because of four reasons (to my limited monkeybrain):
BTW, do not for a moment think that this means end of SEO or Panda, Penguin and PageRank. Those Panda, Penguin and PageRank updates were a small part of the whole old algorithm and they have been retained in the Hummingbird.
Another change is the way Google itself will attempt to provide answers to search queries. Remember the time when to calculate 10 miles to kilometers, we had to go to a site or reach for the calculator? [BTW do you still do that or simply type ‘100 miles to KM’ in the Chrome Omnibar?]
Google aims to bring such quick answers to search or comparison queries too. For e.g., try searching for ‘compare butter with olive oil’ in 3 search engines - Google, Bing, and WolframAlpha. Till now only WolframAlpha provided a decent comparison. But seems Google is taking WolframAlpha head on!
My happy half harps, ‘Hummingbird seems not to have hit me. Googling for ‘Cyclone Nilam Chennai’ still shows me on Page 7, while searching for ‘TC Nilam Chennai’ puts me right on the first page! - just as it was 3 months ago.
Though surreptitiously launched about a month ago, the announcement came only yesterday. Reports suggest that Hummingbird is a complete algorithm rewrite, the next stage in the evolution of Google Search Engine. It aims for a more natural interaction by providing better matching answers to more complex queries.
Till now 2 users searching for a specific subject may not get the same answers or links. That was mainly due to the fact that people had to know what to search for - the so called ‘keyword’. But today, searches are getting more complex because of four reasons (to my limited monkeybrain):
- more people are on the internet and not all of them search alike - with proper ‘keywords’;
- internet itself has been transformed with technology being used in new, interactive ways;
- mobile platform based search including voice search will not be keyword specific, but would be concept based; and,
- people want Google (or any search engine) to understand their search and offer suitable results.
BTW, do not for a moment think that this means end of SEO or Panda, Penguin and PageRank. Those Panda, Penguin and PageRank updates were a small part of the whole old algorithm and they have been retained in the Hummingbird.
Another change is the way Google itself will attempt to provide answers to search queries. Remember the time when to calculate 10 miles to kilometers, we had to go to a site or reach for the calculator? [BTW do you still do that or simply type ‘100 miles to KM’ in the Chrome Omnibar?]
Google aims to bring such quick answers to search or comparison queries too. For e.g., try searching for ‘compare butter with olive oil’ in 3 search engines - Google, Bing, and WolframAlpha. Till now only WolframAlpha provided a decent comparison. But seems Google is taking WolframAlpha head on!
My happy half harps, ‘Hummingbird seems not to have hit me. Googling for ‘Cyclone Nilam Chennai’ still shows me on Page 7, while searching for ‘TC Nilam Chennai’ puts me right on the first page! - just as it was 3 months ago.
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