Category: Google

Google Hummingbird Review

Google Hummingbird Update

google-hummingbird-updateThe Google Hummingbird update has been live for sometime now. Although according to Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Watch, this is not so much an update as it is a whole new algorithm.

Does it matter which it is? Not really, after all’s said and done, we still need to get sites visible and people will continue to search.

What is Google saying though? Not a lot until you really go into it in depth. Then between the lines quite a lot!
They’re really focusing an mobile, both phones and tablets. Google Now is moving towards being even more of an assistant. Amit Singhal explains in a post on the Google blog. you can set a reminder to buy butter on your next trip to Safeway, Google Now will remind when you walk in the store.

They really seem very proud of their voice search, maybe on SIRI on i0S 7 it works well, but on my computer, not so much.

I asked “which is better for me, butter or olive oil?” I got results for “Which is better to boil”, not really so useful.

Knowledge Graph is also mentioned, getting better and giving more information.

It’s mobile where most of the changes are being made and, where those changes will be most notable. In an article on Forbes, Google news room is quoted as saying that the Hummingbird has been flying for several months, not just the one quoted elsewhere.

I first wrote this in 2013 and now it’s time to look at what’s actually happened. Hummingbird was indeed a whole new flock of birds. It changed how search worked because the little bird could understand semantics and context.

The Knowledge Graph got better. It’s job is to keep the searcher on the results page as long as possible. after all, Google makes it’s money from search by selling advertising via its AdWords program. With the product feed available to retailers, you can now buy direct from the search results page.

This means that Google is hoping to become the place on the web for all your needs. Having said that, Google Plus is getting less and less support because it never took off in the way it was hoped. Facebook has not only kept it’s user base but grown it to one and a half billion users, making it a powerhouse that can challenge Google.

Discover more about the Hummingbird update here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hummingbird

Have you noticed a change in the visibility of your site?

Google Shares Shock – will it affect search and SEO?

October 18th 2012 and Google looses $29 billion off it share value. Commentators say it’s because they’ve lost focus on their ‘core’ business and are stretching themselves with things like the buying of Motorola.

Will this affect search and SEO and if so how? Well, let’s look at it without all the hype. So Google shares have lost value, but that’s not the same as money is it? After all if you pay $10 for a share in a company, then it goes up in value to $15 unless you sell it, you didn’t actually have that extra $5 did you?

Sure you had the potential but you could argue that any lottery ticket has the potential to be worth millions, yet if it doesn’t win, you don’t go around bewailing the loss of that potential do you? Well unless you’re like my husband who’s convinced every week that his ‘numbers will come up’ of course 🙂

The question is though will it affect search or SEO? Answer, no, not really. Google still provides the majority of searches world wide, 67% in the US and higher in Europe. With those numbers why would a drop in share price affect the search arm?

Let’s be sensible, Google is still leading the world of search and although other engines like Bing, slowly one percentage point at a time has edged it’s way back into the search landscape it still has nothing like the reach of Google.

Google makes it’s money from advertising, that’s it’s core business, to continue that it needs to stay at the top of the search engine pile. I certainly wouldn’t like to bet against them – yet.

Just because this share shock has occurred at a time when Google was growing at a phenomenal rate and, I don’t think it’ll affect SEO or search, doesn’t mean to say Google can be complacent. It needs to continue to refine it’s search results whilst levelling the playing field so that small businesses can compete with the giants.

Google reaches into every area of the internet and so by default our lives. I don’t think that dropping ‘pretend’ money off its value is going to cause it too many problems do you?