The Hummingbird update was the first major update to Google's search algorithm since the 2010 "Caffeine Update", but even that was limited primarily to improving the indexing of information rather than sorting of information. Google started using Hummingbird about August 30, 2013, and announced the change on September 26 on the eve of the company's 15th anniversary. Hummingbird is about synonyms but also about context. Google always had synonyms, but with Hummingbird it is also able to judge context—thereby judging the intent of a person carrying out a search, to determine what they are trying to find out. This concept is called semantic search. Google said that Hummingbird is paying more attention to each word in a query, ensuring that the whole query—the whole sentence or conversation or meaning—is taken into account. Michelle Hill said Hummingbird is about "understanding intent".
Steve Masters wrote, "The Hummingbird approach should be inspirational to anyone managing and planning content—if you aren't already thinking like Hummingbird, you should be. In a nutshell, think about why people are looking for something rather than what they are looking for.