Google Hummingbird is a project that seeks to improve the Google search engine experience for users by going beyond keyword focus and instead taking into account the context and all of the content in the entire search phrase to provide more of a natural-language, or conversational, approach to search queries.
Unlike two similar projects from Google, Google Panda and Penguin, which both serve as updates for Google’s existing search algorithm engine, Google Hummingbird introduces a completely new search algorithm that is estimated to affect more than 90% of all Google searches.
Google debuted Hummingbird in September 2013 on the eve of the company’s 15th anniversary. The Google Hummingbird release serves as the first major change to the algorithm engine since Google launched “Caffeine” in 2010.
Recommended Reading: How Web Search Engines Work and Five SEO Tips for Driving Search Engine Traffic
