{"id":1213,"slug":"hummingbird-sep-26-2013-semantic-search-90pct-queries","title":"Hummingbird (announced September 26, 2013) — near-total rewrite of the core algorithm; shifted from keyword matching to query-intent understanding; affected ~90% of searches","kind":"reference","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["kevin","candid-team"],"topics":["serp-features","algorithm-updates"],"reference_body":"**Claim:** Announced **September 26, 2013** (running ~a month prior), **Hummingbird** was a near-total rewrite of Google's core algorithm — the biggest since 2001. It shifted from matching individual keywords to understanding the **meaning and intent** of whole queries (\"strings → things\"), supported by the Knowledge Graph (announced May 2012). Affected **~90% of searches**.\n\n**Source:** Google announcement at 15th-birthday press event, September 26, 2013; Search Engine Land coverage.\n\n**Confidence:** Verified.\n\n**Why this matters for Candid:** Began rewarding content that uses natural language and answers the question the user actually has, not the keyword they typed. Foundation for the BERT (2019) / MUM (2021) line.","rationale_body":null,"metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[],"incoming":[{"slug":"research-brief-businesses-found-on-web-google-smb-june-2026","title":"Research brief: How businesses got found on the web — a then→now timeline (Google-focused, SMB lens, June 2026)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"rankbrain-2015-bert-oct-2019-mum-2021-ml-ranking","title":"Machine-learned language understanding in ranking: RankBrain (confirmed October 2015), BERT (October 2019, ~10% of English queries), MUM (announced 2021)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"recurring-pattern-google-shifts-early-adopters-win-laggards-lose","title":"The recurring pattern: every major Google shift changed what got surfaced; early adapters captured the new surface, laggards lost the old one — and the pattern is repeating now with AI answers","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"}]},"created_at":"2026-06-18T00:10:55.824Z","updated_at":"2026-06-18T00:10:55.824Z"}