Google introduces new 'Hummingbird' search algorithm and exposed it's detials on it's turning of 15 years birth day

Google has quietly retooled the closely guarded formula running its internet search engine to give better answers to the increasingly complex questions posed by web surfers.

The overhaul came as part of an update called "Hummingbird" that Google has gradually rolled out in the past month without disclosing the modifications.

Google is trying to keep pace with the evolution of internet usage. As search queries get more complicated, traditional 'Boolean' or keyword-based systems begin deteriorating because of the need to match concepts and meanings in addition to words.

Hummingbird is the company's effort to match the meaning of queries with that of documents on the internet, said AmitSinghal, a company vice presiden"Remember what it was like to search in 1998? You'd sit down and boot up your bulky computer, dial up on your squawky modem, type in some keywords, and get 10 blue links to websites that had those words," Singhal wrote in a separate blog post.

"The world has changed so much since then: billions of people have come online, the web has grown exponentially, and now you can ask any question on the powerful little device in your pocket."

The changes could have a major impact on traffic to websites. Hummingbird represents the most dramatic alteration to its search engine since it revised the way it indexes websites three years ago as part of a redesign called "Caffeine", according to Singhal. He estimates the redesign affects about 90 per cent of the search requests Google gets.

Any reshuffling of Google's search rankings can have sweeping ramifications because they steer so much of the internet's traffic.

Google disclosed the existence of the new search formula on Thursday at an event held in the Menlo Park, California, garage where chief executive Larry Page and fellow co-founder Sergey Brin started the company 15 years ago.

Google celebrates its corporate birthday on September 27 each year, even though the company was incorporated a few weeks earlier. The company is now based in Mountain View, California, at a sprawling complex located about 11 kilometres from the 1900-square-foot home where Page and Brin paid $US1700 per month to rent the garage and a bedroom. The co-founders' landlord was Susan Wojcicki, who is now a top Google executive and Brin's sister-in-law.

Wojcicki sold the home to Google in 2006 and it is now maintained as a monument to the company's humble beginnings.

Google's modifications haven't triggered widespread complaints from other websites, suggesting that the changes haven't resulted in a radical change in the way that Google displays its search rankings. The Caffeine update spurred a loud outcry because it explicitly sought to weed out websites that tried to trick Google's search engine into believing their content was related to common search requests.

Just as Page and Brin set out to do when they started Google in a garage, "we want to keep getting better at helping you make the most of your life," Singhal said.