September 27, 2013: In what might cause a major impact on the internet traffic to various websites, Google has overhauled the formula which runs its internet search engine. An update called ‘Hummingbird’ has been launched by Google last month which could have an impact over the search results. Though Google has not disclosed the modifications that they have made to the search algorithm but according to experts, it is one of the major alterations that the search engine major has done in the recent times.
A major overhaul was done by Google three years ago when they revised the way it indexes websites and called it ‘Caffeine’. Amit Singhal, Senior Vice President, Google was quoted as saying “The new ‘Hummingbird’ update will affect the analysis of about 90 per cent of the search requests that Google gets.” He further added that, “Hummingbird is primarily aimed at giving Google’s search engine a better grasp at understanding concepts instead of mere words”. The impact on search rankings is surely going to be felt by websites as they depend on internet traffic.
The existence of the new search formula was disclosed by Google on Thursday at an event held in the Menlo Park, California, garage. This is the place where CEO Larry Page and fellow co-founder Sergey Brin started the company 15 years ago. The new modifications that Google has brought out are not only going to affect the search results but also the price of Google ads. The sites which are demoted in the rankings are surely going to lose a lot of revenue. Google’s revenue through search rankings is expected to approach USD 60 billion this year.
Though Caffeine update resulted in a large outcry when it was launched three years ago, the new renovation to the search engine has not triggered widespread complaints from websites. The company said that the new update was much warranted as people nowadays are putting lengthy questions in the search box instead of few words and as more and more people have started using smartphones and Google’s voice recognition technology, they have started submitting search requests in spoken sentences.
