Google Hummingbird

Google Hummingbird is a search algorithm used by Google.
Google started using Hummingbird about August 30, 2013, and announced the change on September 26 on the eve of the company's 15th anniversary.
Gianluca Fiorelli said Hummingbird is about synonyms but also about context. Google always had synonyms, he writes, but with Hummingbird it is also able to judge context - thereby judging the intent of a person carrying out a search, to determine what they are trying to find out. Danny Sullivan said of Hummingbird, "Google said that Hummingbird is paying more 
attention to each word in a query, ensuring that the whole query — the 
whole sentence or conversation or meaning — is taken into account." Michelle Hill said Hummingbird is about "understanding intent". Steve Masters wrote, "The Hummingbird approach should be inspirational to anyone managing and planning content – if you aren't already thinking like Hummingbird, you should be. In a nutshell, think about why people are looking for something rather than what they are looking for. A content strategy should be designed to answer their needs, not just provide them with facts." "The age of Semantic Search."
== Features ==
The Hummingbird update was the first major update to Google's search 
algorithm since the 2010 “Caffeine Update”, but even that was limited 
primarily to improving the indexing of information rather than the 
sorting of information. Google search chief Amit Singhal stated that Hummingbird is the first major update of its type since 2001.
Conversational search leverages natural language, semantic search, and more to improve the way search queries are parsed.
 Unlike previous search algorithms which would focus on each individual 
word in the search query, Hummingbird considers each word but also how 
each word makes up the entirety of the query — the whole sentence or 
conversation or meaning — is taken into account, rather than particular 
words. The goal is that pages matching the meaning do better, rather 
than pages matching just a few words.
Much like an extension of Google's "Knowledge Graph", Hummingbird is 
aimed at making interactions more human — capable of understanding the 
concepts and relationships between keywords. 
Hummingbird places greater emphasis on page content making search 
results more relevant and pertinent and ensuring that Google delivers 
users to the most appropriate page of a website, rather than to a home 
page or top level page.
=== Seo ===
Search Engine Optimization
 received little changes with the addition of Hummingbird, though the 
more top ranking results are ones that provide natural content that 
reads conversationally.
 While keywords within the query still continue to be important, 
Hummingbird adds more strength to long-tailed keywords — effectively 
catering to the optimization of content rather than just keywords.
 Webmasters will now have to cater towards queries that are asked 
naturally; with the growing number of conversational queries -- namely 
those using voice search, targeting phrases that start with "Who, Why, 
Where, and How" will prove beneficial towards SEO. The use of keyword 
synonyms have also been optimized with Hummingbird; instead of listing 
results with exact phrases or keywords, Google shows more theme-related 
results.
Category:Search