Mountain View, California — Google Inc. on Wednesday has rekindle its love for speedy Web searches infused a new feature to its search engine called “Google Instant,” which can display results in real time as users type their search queries.
Titled “Google Instant,” the newly unleashed feature searches the Web “as you type, not after you type,” Marissa Mayer, Google’s vice president of search product and user experience, said at a press event at San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art.
Google Search Product and User Experience Marissa Mayer speaks during an announcement September 8, 2010 in San Francisco, California. The new concept can yield “a smarter and faster search that is interactive, predictive and powerful,” Mayer, wrote in a blog post. Google announced the launch of Google Instant, a faster version of Google search that streams results live as you type your query.
When entering a search query with Google Instant, results starts to appear as soon as the first letter is entered, and they update as the user types. Mayer, said results are actually “produced before you type,” because Google Instant predicts and automatically completes search terms.
According to Google, an individual searcher spends nine seconds entering a query, and 15 seconds searching for answers. While experiment revealed that streamlined Google Instant saves the normal searcher two to five seconds per search, adding on up to 11 hours saved every second if Google’s worldwide users all switch to the new feature, Mayer noted. Users can now get to the right content much faster than before because they do not have to finish typing their full search term or even press “search,” according to Google.
Google maintains that Instant would not significantly slow down Internet connections, because the amount of data produced for search terms is relatively small, and because the system only sends parts of the page that change when more typing alters a search result. For connections that are already slow, Google Instant automatically turns off, and users can also shut off the service through their user preferences or by clicking the drop down box to the right of the search bar.
For instance, typing “the girl” will display instant results to the popular book The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. There is no need to type the entire title and press enter. Google predicts your interests based on your past search history and your local Web address, which tells Google where you are. You need to sign in to your Google account for Instant to work.
The new feature “makes search more interactive. Competent users will really appreciate it,” says Greg Sterling, an analyst with researcher Sterling Market Intelligence. Google is developing a version of instant search for mobile devices, such as cellphones. That may have the biggest impact “because of the fewer keystrokes,” Sterling says. “It will make mobile search more widely used.”
Anne Cushing, director of search services for BlueGlass Interactive, a Tampa-based company that assists businesses emerge in Google search results, says “the changes generate opportunities for tech-savvy firms”.
“The ones who can get accustomed to the fastest are going to thrive,” she says. “Now, rather than just looking at what keywords pop up in results, letters and even syllables will rank as well.”
The internet search engine leader said that Google Instant is rolling out in the United States, and will spread internationally through the week. The new tool works in Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer 8 and Safari. More information is available at Google’s Website, where users can try the service and set it as their home page. Users in the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Spain and Russia will get Google Instant over the next week, followed by more countries in coming weeks and months, the company said.
Mobile access to Google Instant is planned, but not available now. Google also said it passed a major milestone recently: It now has 1 billion users per week.
Here is a video that demonstrates the ABC’s of Google Instant: