Google 'Hummingbird' algorithm to elevate niche websites (source : Telegraph)
Google's new Hummingbird algorithm could create a more even playing field for ‘the long tail’ of website publishers, and help Google to rival Apple Siri in voice search, says Ovum analyst Gerry Brown.
Last week, Google announced a brand
new algorithm for its search engine, called Hummingbird. Although Google
often produces updates and enhancements (such as the “Caffeine Update” in
2010, and “Penguin” and “Panda” since), the last time Google introduced a
brand new algorithm was 2001, so it is a big change.
Although Google has not given away many details, it said that Hummingbird is
focused on ranking information based on a more intelligent understanding of
search requests. As Internet data volumes explode we increasingly have to
type more and more words into Google Search to gain greater accuracy of
results. Often we need to conduct multiple searches to find the information
we are looking for, which is frustrating and time consuming.
This is because the Search results we currently receive reflect the matching
combination of key words that a search phrase contains, rather than the true
meaning of the sentence itself. Search results produced by Hummingbird will
reflect the full semantic meaning of longer search phrases, and should in
theory produce more accurate results.
For example Hummingbird will more greatly consider question words like “how”
“why”, “where” and “when” in search phrases, in addition to content
keywords. Hence Hummingbird moves the emphasis of search from “results” to
“answers”.
Google also has acknowledged that the number of mobile and voice-based
searches is increasing. Such voice searches are in natural language, and may
not therefore contain the keywords we might finesse on a computer keyboard.
These ‘on the fly’ searches are likely to return poor results using a
keyword search system.
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