Saturday, September 18, 2010

Google Instant

Earlier this month, Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt tweeted: “I predict big things happening today at Google. We’re already fast… fast is about to get faster.” That same day, Google unveiled “Google Instant,” a new feature that promises increased speed. It basically renders the “Google Search” button obsolete.

With Google Instant, search results automatically appear as the user types (think Mac OS X’s Spotlight, or Launchy for Windows). Early reports indicate that the response time is very quick. Typing a single letter will yield results based on the most popular queries that begin with that particular letter.

Is this really necessary, though? Isn’t Google fast enough? Marissa Meyer, Google’s VP, explains that the enhancement will increase productivity, and will cut searching time from an average of nine seconds, to about two to five seconds less. That sounds very nice, but I have to wonder if this added functionality can truly make noticeable increases in productivity. Two to five seconds less sounds negligible, although I would love to be proven wrong.

Unfortunately, Google Instant is only available to users in the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Russia. No word yet on when this will be available to users in South East Asia.

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