Have you noticed anything new while browsing with Google Chrome today?  Whenever you open a new tab, the Google Search bar is now visible and the sites you frequently visit have been reduced in size.

Aside from that, your Chrome apps, Google+, Gmail, images, and calendar reminders are now in the top right side of the page instead of appearing on the next page.  And if there’s a Google Doodle, you’ll see four moving little circles on the top corner of the letter ‘e’ in Google – click on it and you’ll see the Google Doodle.

So what’s with all the changes?  The reason is that today is the day that Google celebrates its birthday – and not just any ordinary birthday.

Today, Google Search has just reached its 15 year milestone, and has decided to celebrate it with a fun game of piñata and a raft of changes in Chrome and with its search engine algorithm.  If you want to play a quick game of piñata to celebrate with Google, all you need is to hit the play button and use the spacebar to hit the dangling star. The point is to get a high score by getting more candies while hitting the star.  You can play as many times as you want and even share your score on G+.

The Evolution of Google Search

Google Search has mutated greatly over the years.  It now offers far more meaningful search results than ever before, and though some critics will claim that it is biased and aids the NSA in spying on people, it’s become by far and away the most widely used search engine in the world.  From typing simple words, it now asks you if you meant another thing when your query is not clear. You don’t even have to finish typing your query because of autocomplete, you can use questions to find what you’re looking for, you can even say it out loud because of voice search, and with Google Now, information is available at a glance.

Still, Google’s just getting started, and it’s got big plans to evolve Search even further, helping its users to find even more knowledge and insights than they do already.

Over the next weeks, Google announced that it will be rolling out a number of new features for both web and mobile search:

Filters and Comparisons

With Knowledge Graph, users are able to ask Google questions.  Google has greatly improved this feature so that Graph can answer more complex questions, even those that don’t have a simple answer.  You can even use it to compare things like olive oil and butter, or dog breeds, or even planets, and it will deliver a result that’s easy to understand.

Google Across all your Devices

Google will soon be rolling out a feature that allows you to set reminders on one device, and make these available across all your other devices.  The feature will be available on the new version of Google Search app, which will be available to download soon.

Even if you’re using devices with different platforms, the Google Search app will tie them together.  It works like this, if you set a reminder on your Nexus 7 about buying olive oil at Safeway, if you bring your iPhone with the Google Search app to the store, it reminds you the moment you walk in that you have to buy olive oil.  And Google Now notifications will also be made available across all your devices, so you won’t be ever be late to a class or meeting ever again (providing you use it!).

Clean and Fresh

Aside from these functional changes, Google has also updated the look of Google Search on mobile platforms so everything is cleaner and simpler, optimized for touch, with results clustered on cards so you can focus on the answers you’re looking for.

“We’ll keep improving Google Search so it does a little bit more of the hard work for you. This means giving you the best possible answers, making it easy to have a conversation and helping out before you even have to ask. Hopefully, we’ll save you a few minutes of hassle each day. So keep asking Google tougher questions—it keeps us on our toes! After all, we’re just getting started,” Google said on its blog post.

The Hummingbird

Perhaps the most important change is the one that’s been made to Google’s algorithm. Known as Hummingbird, the revamped algorithm has revised the way Google indexes websites, as part of a bigger redesign called Caffeine.  Amit Singhal, a senior vice-president of Google, stated that Hummingbird will affect analysis of about 90 percent of Google searchers.

Though the change will be welcomed by Google Search users, the reshuffling of its search algorithm will likely cause a big hullabaloo in the SEO world, with speculation that it could drive up the price of Google ads tied to search requests, especially for sites that have been demoted.