Google trials Instant for predictive search results
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Google has launched Google Instant, an update to its search functionality that brings up results as you type a query.
Google Instant starts delivering search results as soon as a letter is typed, without users having to press enter, and uses predictive text by show likely queries as a user writes.
It’s being tested with those logged into Google accounts, including UK users, with the company intending it to ultimately be the default search experience on Google.com.
Google launched Google Suggest, or Autocomplete, in 2008, and found that it reduced the time it took to search by 50%. It has integrated this into Google.com and predicts it will reduce people’s search time by between two and five seconds per search.
Marissa Mayer, VP of search products and user experience at Google, said, “Google Instant is search-before-you-type. It takes what you’ve typed already, predicts the most likely completion and streams results in real time for those predictions, yielding a smarter and faster search that’s interactive, predictive and powerful.”
This story first appeared on newmediaage.co.uk
Readers' comments (4)
Anonymous | Thu, 9 Sep 2010 12:29 pm
Could be a major headache for SEO, and looks likely to penalise smaller businesses
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Anonymous | Thu, 9 Sep 2010 1:01 pm
What am I missing here? This has been going on for ages. MSN do it as do Yahoo!
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Anonymous | Thu, 9 Sep 2010 1:13 pm
Like it!
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Christian Hirlemann | Fri, 10 Sep 2010 12:54 pm
It is hard to see the real value of this to the end user. Who was complaining that it took too long to search on Google. I certainly have never heard this. Shaving 2-5 second off of a process that takes less than 5-10 seconds is impressive but perhaps a little pointless.
I feel there are a few possible reasons for this move
1) Google is trying to increase competition on the more generic terms, this will make it more expensive for advertisers and will penalize small advertisers more than larger ones.
2) Google is performing a huge test of its understanding of search query intent, perhaps in preparation for increased Mobile search.
3) Google wanted something new that will get some media attention after Bing has had so much recently.
Google is certainly looking to regain it post as undisputed king of search, and are obviously a little ruffled at the idea of the MSN/Yahoo alliance . Why else would they make such a major change to there famously un cluttered Search Engine?
For a little more analysis read http://www.sleepinggiantmedia.co.uk/posts/google-instant-instant-revenue/
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