Google's 'Hummingbird' search engine update to provide better answers to queries

Google has reportedly retooled its search engine with an update called as ‘Hummingbird’, in a bid to provide better search answers to its users.

The update, considered as the most dramatic alteration to Google’s search engine, was rolled out in the past month without the company disclosing the modifications. A senior vice president for Google, Amit Singhal said that Hummingbird is the major overhaul to the search engine since it revised the way it indexes websites three years ago as part of a redesign called Caffeine, news.com.au reports. Singhal said that the redesign will affect the analysis of about 90 percent of the search requests that Google gets.

According to the report, this major change can also alter traffic on the site and is likely to drive up the price of Google ads tied to search requests if websites whose rankings are demoted under the new system feel they have to buy the marketing messages to attract traffic.

Singhal explained that Hummingbird is aimed at giving Google's search engine a better grasp at understanding concepts instead of mere words because people have become so reliant on the search site that they now enter lengthy questions in the search box instead of a few words, the report added.