I don’t know what I think about this feature yet, as I switched it off as soon as I noticed it, but the first impression certainly was annoying. Maybe I’ll give it a second chance later 
What I’ve read in this article from hubspot
Google Instant also means a shift toward focusing even more on higher rankings for specific long tail keyword phrases. The Google Instant interface reduces the need to scroll down the page looking for better results and essentially eliminates the need to look at anything other than the first page of search engine results. Users will look at the first three to five results at the top of the page without having to scroll; if they don’t see what they are looking for, they will adjust their search phrase instead of scrolling or visiting the next page of results.
Ultimately Google Instant means a more personalized search experience, and it ensures that search results are no longer static. Search results continue to become more customized to individuals and their habits and preferences. While long tail keywords are now even more important, the changes Google made today only reinforce that to be found by qualified visitors online, you need to create and publish relevant content that is valuable and solves the problems of your prospects and customers.
I don’t see anything wrong with this technology but, to be honest, is there anything new under the sun? Because the search-as-you-type has been already in place for a while. I mean that Google already tried to autofill your search requests to do your search easier.
This is just a little step forward, but not such a huge difference, in my opinion.
and it’s irritating that it does it without asking you and with no immediately obvious way to stop it.
Block scripts from the domain google.com
Using instant search I’m just reminded how much Google pimps large corporations. Think their turning more into a portal directory that people use instead of the address bar. But for actual searches for information and news it’s kind of loosing importance for me.
Type “e” and I got: ebay, espn, expedia. “s” - skype, sears, staples. Randomly type 2 letters: “be” - best buy, bed bath and beyond, etc.
What happened to independent results? Someone really needs to come out with an unbiased search engine that doesn’t sell out to large corporations.
I just think people will know how to search better. It’s like teaching people how to search via a search engine. So I don’t think SEO will suffer.
If anybody feels different please say, but I don’t see how it can suffer.
But if people know how to search better, then they probably would not be clicking on the PPC adds on the top. Come to think of it, it might have some affect on paid adds.
This boy created an instant search-like feature for YouTube, and now he got a job offer by YouTube on the spot. Crazy.
It’s pretty cool…When we look at the future of search there are generally three axis these things progress along. Interactions. Comprehensiveness. Understanding. For a lot of the features and a lot of the changes we make, they really only move forward on one axis at a time. Google Instant is interesting because it actually moves the ball forward on all three of those areas. It is a totally new way of interacting with the search engine.”
<snip/>
watching the video now, looks interesting.
Well I don’t know… it actually has a link right next to the search box that says “Instant is on” or “Instant is off” that allows you to quickly toggle.
I understand when someone (read MS) comes out with a new technology and shoves it down your throat, but here I think G has just given another option to display search results.
I like the new search but I generally just search google through my toolbar. So why it is a neat idea. It isn’t revolutionary enough to make me change my searching habits.
Haven’t seen any changes in traffic since Google Instant went live. It’ll be interesting to keep an eye on it and see if any changes occur.
I type so fast I don’t even notice it. I know that other normal users don’t but when I do slow it down it is a bit distracting. BUT it may help people get more traffic for long tail search terms.
With great power comes great responsibility. Maybe there is some plan going on. Instead of neutralizing the world, were everybody can see the same thing, they seem to be viewing us in regions.
It kind of makes you think about net-neutrality a bit here. Almost like they’re gearing people to do a certain thing.
Google has stated they want results to be more local. To the point that, if you’re in Rotterdam and are searching for something like shoe shops, you’d get results for shops that sell shoes in Rotterdam and close by.
I think it should be an option (search local) as most of the time I don’t want local. How dare they assume I do??
It makes you think a bit though, why did Google not transfer you to the US version, but the UK? Why are they forcing you to see the UK version? I hope my results are of the worldwide web, and not it’s UK/EU version of the world-wide web.
huh?
No, if I type in “google.com” I get sent to “google.nl”. It used to be that if I typed “google.us” I’d get to “google.com” which was perfect.
Today if I type in “google.us” I still get redirected to “google.nl” now, so I have to click a link they have on the Dutch google site “search google in English” to get to “google.com”.
However I was noticing that if I type in “google.co.uk” I just get that site, no redirects. Same goes for any other subdomain: I don’t get redirected if I type in google.is (I do that a lot accidentally) or google.cn (for the lawlz).
Unless you meant, why I go to US google.com if I choose “search in English”. I dunno why, but it’s an American company so I guess they can. I’m just still kinda pissed that I can’t just type “google.us” and not get redirected back to google.nl. What, my url choice wasn’t clear enough?
And I clear cookies on every browser shutdown, and apparently they keep track of your choice with cookies, so I have to reset it every time. Still worth it to always dump all cookies though.
Exactly, which is why it’s come down to the point where we have to have plugins in our browsers to stop geo-location-based redirects. Only reason I don’t have a plugin against Google at this point is because my default language isn’t English, so I get the choice to click a link to google.com. But you don’t, so I suggest you have no choice but to take matters into your own hands and stop Google from screwing with your browser.
Google has stated they want results to be more local. To the point that, if you’re in Rotterdam and are searching for something like shoe shops, you’d get results for shops that sell shoes in Rotterdam and close by.
So this would mean you get different results based on your geographic location. I think YouTube is doing something similar, with their add programme. I don’t really agree with this, to some degree it’s useful, but in other respects I might want to see what a US person sees on his search engine.
There should ideally be an option to turn this off. This cannot be a good thing. Eventually we will have different results and everything.
I don’t think people who want to learn XHTML and CSS need to be directed to a local source, same goes for cooking recepies. You might be able to get away with it for businesses, but there is times one might be working for a web design company abroad, and he might be search engine optimizing a site from abroad.
How is he suppose to see what’s going on if Google is not being honest and transparent to what his targetted audience will see?
But you don’t, so I suggest you have no choice but to take matters into your own hands and stop Google from screwing with your browser.
I will, they should not have assumed this.
To sum things up, people from different countries will get default redirects, different content (which Google believes is more relavent) with no option to turn this kind of search off unless you use a VPN or something. Eventually we will all be on a different internet on this planet, something which contradicts the whole purpose of the internet. Sounds wrong.
I like how search results are returned instantly without a page reload, but don’t like the predictive nature of it personally; showing results as you type. I’d prefer it to show search suggestions as I type, on which it displays the results for that search if I key down or mouse over the suggestion. So the technology is good, but it just needs a bit of refining.
I admit though that it’s too early for me to make any conclusions. No one will benefit from this new technology instantly, it’ll take a couple of days or weeks to get use to before you can actually determine whether it’s of any use to you personally. I’m definitely going to leave it on either way, unless after a couple of weeks I’m sick of it. It’s better to try and get use to the default behavior of Google, than changing settings on every computer you use.
I can see it making ranking for page 1 searches all the more important. As Google’s constantly suggesting and displaying variations on your term and providing instant results, I cant see most users going onto page 2, 3 etc when a whole new set of results is one press of the down arrow key.
If I search for beetroot recipe, I’m much more inclined to browse the results for variations such as ‘beetroot feta recipe’, ‘beetroot recipe Jamie Oliver’,‘greece beetroot salad recipe’ as they’re words that I wouldn’t of immediately thought of rather than digging through the next 3 pages of the original term
So if you wrote the software, after how many letters would you start making suggestions to help the searcher?
This is an incredibly stupid and annoying “feature”. You type one! letter and it starts returning results. How could it possibly know what I am looking for when I type one letter? This is STUPID!
Just one more reason to use search.yahoo.com.