To catch a Google hummingbird

Ana By Ana

So Google has released its latest search algorithm, Hummingbird: do I care? Hell yes; it is quite simply amazing. I remember way back when Google was in its infancy, and even then I fell in love with the search engine. Let’s face it, something that makes study, work and life easier – who wouldn’t? Yet recently I was starting to fall out of love. Google News was on my home page and I loved it to find press coverage, as well as the latest news stories: so when it made changes recently I was quite simply heart broken and forced to use Feedly and Pickanews as alternatives.

What has got me singing about Hummingbird then? Well funnily enough not the fact it can handle natural speech better, though the geek in me is extremely excited about the fact Google is aiming for independent speech. In other words, we won’t need to pull our smartphones out or press any buttons to communicate with Google. What has got me all in a tither is the fact that the search engine will now start directly answering some of my questions; and not just any questions but questions on calories! OK I admit it I am a shameful calorie counter and a typical PR in this respect ;) but when you want to shift kilos every calorie counts.

How does it work? You put in the two things you want to compare, e.g. milk versus soy milk, and it will compare the calorie and nutritional content. Who knew that, intolerances aside, milk is better for you?! Other examples are butter versus margarine – interestingly margarine comes off worse in the different fat stakes; peanut butter versus avocado – not really a contest in my view; not to mention chocolate versus dates. The list appears to be endless, what better way to celebrate its 15th birthday in style! Though the party might lack some high calorie and fat foods :)

So what will it mean for the industry? It remains to be seen what effect Hummingbird will have on Google search rankings, though for the meantime it seems to be more about a better search experience all around. Happy Birthday Google! Here’s to many more years to come.