Have you noticed something a little different when you search on Google lately? Yesterday on Google's 15th anniversary, they announced what those changes are!

Yesterday in Menlo Park, Calif. (where Google began 15 years ago in a garage), Google executives announced some exciting new changes to the search algorithm that they use. These changes are tagged as "Hummingbird" and have been in affect almost a month now.

Since most people are searching with more detailed questions instead of just words or short phrases, Google has adjusted their algorithm to make the results more relevant and useful.

Have you searched for a specific date or person and noticed a separate box at the top or top right that answers your question for you? That's Hummingbird.

It will also pop up with a separate box if you're trying to compare some items. Google used olive oil vs. coconut oil in their presentation. Here's what it looks like now when you search olive oil vs. coconut oil:

Google Search

Personally, I think that's pretty cool. Reduces the time it takes to find an answer and gives you exactly what you're looking for instead of having to search multiple pages.

The downside of this new feature to some companies will be lack of traffic. Companies like Yelp and WebMD get a lot of their traffic from Google results. For example, now if you Google a medication, instead of needing to go to WebMD to find out what it is, you can see it directly on the Google search page like this:

Google Search

It will be interesting to see from a business perspective how companies react?

What do you all think about these changes?