Google is continually trying to upgrade and refine its search algorithm to display web pages and rank them based on each search. Users are entering millions of searches every minute and Google has to direct that flood of traffic to the most appropriate web page or list of pages. Hummingbird is the company's new answer to that task. While Google has historically relied on the PageRank algorithm, Hummingbird is a new and improved search tool that the company uses based on the PageRank formula.

Overview

Hummingbird uses over 200 different "ingredients" that form of the base of its search algorithm. These include a number of different factors including the PageRank setting that all previous versions of the algorithm used. The ingredients primarily are used to weight how valuable a page is and the quality of its content. If a page is updated regularly with quality video, audio and text that receives a lot of attention from unique visitors, it is much likelier to improve in the search rankings. While Google does not want to explicitly state the formula for improving in the organic search rankings, it will disclose this emphasis on quality sites.

History

Hummingbird has been used for about 4 years now. It was given the name because its developers wanted it to be precise and fast. Google did not promote the new engine or create a lot of fan fare about the change. That is because they do not want marketers trying to game the system. Rather, they want content creators, web publishers and e-commerce firms to continue providing valuable content, products and services to users. If they gain a substantial following, the algorithm will automatically pick it up and move the site up the search rankings.

The 2013 update was a huge project for the company. The last time that the firm changed its algorithm so dramatically was in 2001 as the company was just getting started and adjusting to the market.

New Search Criteria

One of the most important additions to Hummingbird was the inclusion of conversational search data. The web is exploding with conversations including forums and messaging. The new algorithm takes into account all of this new data.

Even more importantly, the algorithm responds to questions that are directly typed into the search bar. For example, you may ask "What is the best pizza in my town?" or "How cold is it in Chicago?". In the past, the results were hit or miss. Now, Google will either directly reply with the answer "It is 30 degrees" or they will direct you to top results like Uno's Pizzeria.

Rationale

There are many different speculations as to why the company changed its algorithm so dramatically to use the Hummingbird upgrade. Most analysts believe that it was due to the rampant, widespread, industry around search engine optimization (SEO). Google wanted to level the playing field a bit and taking many of the existing SEO players out of the market. These companies were too focused on gaming the system rather than producing valuable results that web users could actually use. Instead, Google felt that they would be more useful by providing the most valuable websites to users searching on the Google home page or search bar.

Cynical analysts also believe that Google wanted to capture the huge amount of money going to SEO consulting firms for themselves. Instead of clients paying to game rankings, they could simply pay Google to appear at the top of pages through sponsored results on Adwords. If there are fewer people gaming results, than the clients will end up paying less overall to achieve the same web traffic results.