Google understands search requests better after altering its algorithm to read full sentences rather than key words - the biggest change to its system in five years.

The new language analysis technique understands users’ queries better and will influence responses to one in ten searches.

The search giant has started updating software in its data centres in recent days, introducing changes for English searches before applying it to other languages.

Its natural language processing ability is seen as a breakthrough as this is one of the most difficult problems to solve in AI due to context and the person using it.

Google’s previous algorithm singled out the key words in a search query while ignoring the smaller words which seem less significant.

This focuses on the main subject but can lead to misinterpretation of a user’s request.

The technology, known as BERT, will work best for longer, more conversational queries and has been built from vast analysis of online texts.

It works by assessing every word in a search query at the same time, instead of reading the words sequentially.

Google told The Financial Times that the change will be too subtle for most people to notice but will result in more useful search responses.