New research has pinpointed the success of any colonies beyond their selflessness and hard work to the group's quick and efficient daily search for food.

According to the Independent, the group compared a colony of ants gathering food to Google returning search results and concluded the ants were "far more efficient." In a comprehensive mathematical study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers said the ants use "highly complex networks" to turn chaos into order.

"While single ants can appear chaotic and random-like, they very quickly become an ordered line of ants crossing the woodland floor in the search for food," study co-author Jurgen Kurths, a researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), told the Independent. "That transition between chaos and order is an important mechanism and I'd go so far as to say that the learning strategy involved in that, is more accurate and complex than a Google search. These insects are, without doubt, more efficient than Google in processing information about their surroundings."

The researchers said the study could even affect how to view human behavior on the web. The ant colony divided itself between scouts and gatherers and their system was designed so that the latter could refine its search area for food sources.

"Ants have a nest so they need something like a strategy to bring home the food they find," study lead-author Lixiang Li, a researcher at PIK and the Beijing University of Posts and Communications, said in a press release. "We argue that this is a factor, largely underestimated so far, that actually determines their behavior."

The team found that ants on their own are not smart and therefore need their group and its elaborate scout-gathering system to function.

"While the single ant is certainly not smart, the collective acts in a way that I'm tempted to call intelligent," Kurths said in the release. "The principle of self-organization is known from for instance fish swarms, but it is the homing which makes the ants so interesting.

"The ants collectively form a highly efficient complex network... and this is something we find in many natural and social systems."