* Alan Spicer says:
Google.com’s logo, which often gets changed to some kind of gizmo on holidays and such, the day before went into a bouncing balls gadget … and then yesterday it went into a grey backrounded “Google” which changed back into color as you typed in the search box. Several blogs and online sites speculated as to what this was all about … some kind of Google announcement was forthcoming with an event pending? Anyway now, Google.com “classic” home page does searches ahead of your typing … already returning results after the first letter. I don’t know if anyone else saw it but it was sort of doing this already for some time on iGoogle if you register with Google and get a username and password (e.g. if you have Google Gmail.) It seems to be still acting the same way on iGoogle as it has been acting lately. Returning a drop-down box with possible things that you might be “going to type” before you type them. I guess that kind of helps sometimes if others have already searched for what you’re looking for then it will give you suggestions as you type. But it seemed to piss me off quite often because whatever “code” Javascript or whatever that does that … seemed to bog down my system a bit. I kept wanting to blame my wireless keyboard, but it wasn’t that. It was that “read ahead” … “think ahead” thing going on in iGoogle. Well it seems like Google.com “classic” has extended this even more, and it’s actually returning full page “results” as you progress in typing from the first letter on. * I, for one, am not sure I like that. I don’t think I need to get results back for each-and-every letter that I type in a search text. I only need it to kick in, if at all, when I get to the “meat” of what I’m looking for. I think … (“It don’t really matter what I think, … once that first bullet goes past you head … politics and that other sh just goes right out the window” — Blackhawk Down) that it has a bad tendancy to encourage people to do “fuzzy searching” and “fuzzy surfing” of the web. If too many choices are presented – too soon in the dialog for a search request – then we tend to go “hey that looks interesting…” even if it has NOTHING to do with what we’re searching for. It could be a real time waster. Another cost of lost productivity in businesses across america (both big, in the cubicles, and small office / home office) because of all the fuzzy surfing that it will cause. That’s just my 2 cents worth for now… On to the article from PC World.
Google Instant Searches the Web As You Type
Jared Newman, PC World
Sep 8, 2010 1:38 pm
Google has rekindle its love for speedy Web searches with Google Instant, a new version of the search engine that displays results as you type.
When typing a search query with Google Instant, results appear after the first letter is entered, and they update as the user types. Marissa Mayer, Google’s vice president of search and user experience, said results are actually delivered “before you type,” because Google Instant predicts and automatically completes search terms.
According to Google, a typical searcher spends nine seconds entering a query, and 15 seconds searching for answers. Google hopes to shave two to five seconds per search using Google Instant.
Click to EnlargeGoogle claims that Instant won’t considerably slow down Internet connections, because the amount of data delivered 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.
(more at the link above.)
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