Google's hummingbird algorithm

Google's new search algorithm is called "Hummingbird" that it uses to retrieve and organize results that you search for. Its causing a lot of buzz at work. The name is being tossed around by  SEO "experts" as it is the coolest thing since sliced bread. Sigh!. Anyways, let's take a look at what this is all about.

Google claims that Hummingbird is its best search algorithm yet. Google named it so to indicate "precise and fast". Google's last major update to its search engine called Caffeine was in 2010. In fact Google claims this to be almost a rewrite of its search engine. One of the biggest features of Hummingbird is what it calls Conversational Search . With this feature, you can ask it questions. 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, rather than particular words. The goal is that pages matching the meaning do better, rather than pages matching just a few words.

An example used on SearchEngineLand.com a  search for “pay your bills through citizens bank and trust bank” used to bring up the home page  for Citizens Bank but now should return the specific page  about paying bills.  

Here is another example from SearchEngineLand.com.

Submit a query to Google such as "show me pictures of Fenway Park", and it does:

Then follow that query with this one: "who plays there", and you get this result:

This doesn't change how we should structure SEO in websites, which fundamentally still relies on good hierarchical URL structure and breadcrumbs, and good relevant content (See my earlier post).