The intertubes have been abuzz with Google Instant, and when I first saw it I was simply dumbstruck with its brilliance!
I feel that this is going to change the way we search and interact with Google, but its real power will be unleashed when it comes to the browser. That’s because I hardly ever go to Google.com to conduct a search; all my searches happen on the search bar on my Firefox browser, and it is the same for a lot of others as well who conduct their searches from their browsers.
Google did say it will be coming natively to browsers in the next few months, and that would be the time when I start using this feature in earnest.
All that said; let’s take a look at some of the questions that are popping up in people’s minds about Instant Google.
1. When will I start seeing this on my local Google site?
Right now you can only see this feature on Google.com, and the initial roll out will be on the Google domains in the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Russia. Google says it will roll it out to users in other domains in the next few months, so Indian users may have to wait a bit.
2. Does this impact search rankings?
Google’s announcement states that this doesn’t impact the way your search results are ranked, and that will continue to be the same as before. You can also turn this feature off, so whether you use this feature or not will not make any difference to the search results you see.
3. What if I don’t want to save 2 –5 seconds per search?
The announcement page highlights the fact that you can save 2 – 5 seconds per search, but to me that’s not a big deal at all.
In fact, after using Google Instant for a little while, I realized that it saves a lot more than that but only for slightly complex queries.
Showing me results even before I finish typing helps me formulate my search much better, and get to the right page after hitting the first enter even for complex questions. In reality, this feature saves a lot more than 2 – 5 seconds, if your queries are slightly more complex, and in a subtle way saves you from typing and refining your search string, and brings the search results on the second or third page that you’d normally never see right in front of you.
That’s what Google said in their conference and I found that to be absolutely true while searching for sticky notes of different colors for a PowerPoint presentation. Giving instant feedback helps you formulate the question much better, and in turn brings the results of the second, third or even fourth page right in front of you.
This is a great new feature, but it will be some time before people get their hands to it via their local sites and browsers, and that’d be the time when we really start seeing difference in how people use Google.
Till then enjoy the thrill of seeing streaming search results even before you finish typing on Google.com!
Related posts:
- kwippy: Close network nano-blogging through Instant Messenger
- Is twitter Geotagging feature a sign of things to come
- Google suggests Most Popular Google Web services [random fun]
- Google Accounts for two-thirds of 131 Billion Searches world-wide!
- There is sudden rush of search engines. Does this mean Google needs to buck up?
PDF 
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Good info about Google Instant feature and it’s impact..I also posted an article about how google effectively killed i’m feeling button using it’s new instant feature..