It is a bird, it is a plane, no wait, it is a bird. A hummingbird to be exact. Google has released a new search algorithm designed to be more precise and provide faster query results. The algorithm is based on semantic search, focusing on user intent versus individual search terms.

This interesting news was found on Search Engine Land in their article, “Google’s Hummingbird Takes Flight: SEOs Give Insight On Google’s New Algorithm“, where they described it as follows:

“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.”

Unlike prior releases, Hummingbird is a complete replacement. Google’s search chief Amit Singhal was reported saying that Hummingbird represents the first time since 2001 that a Google algorithm has been so dramatically rewritten.

We all know how important finding our information can be, and also how challenging it can be. Access Innovations’ Data Harmony suite of content enrichment and thesaurus management tools help users take full advantage of their metadata through auto-classification, enterprise taxonomy management, entity extraction, and search enhancements.

Melody K. Smith

Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in taxonomies, metadata, and semantic enrichment to make your content findable.