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September 8, 2010

Try Google Instant Search

Google will soon release a new interface that shows the results as you type a query. If you want to try the new feature before it's officially released, use this URL: http://www.google.com/webhp?sclient=psy.



My first impression: you can now get useful results after typing a few characters. Google has never been so fast.

To watch a webcast of Google's search event where streaming search will be launched, visit youtube.com/google.

Update: The feature is called Google Instant. "Feelings of euphoria and weightlessness are normal. Do not be alarmed."

"Google Instant is a new search enhancement that shows results as you type. We are pushing the limits of our technology and infrastructure to help you get better search results, faster. The most obvious change is that you get to the right content much faster than before because you don’t have to finish typing your full search term, or even press 'search.' Another shift is that seeing results as you type helps you formulate a better search term by providing instant feedback. You can now adapt your search on the fly until the results match exactly what you want. In time, we may wonder how search ever worked in any other way."



{ via Zorgloob and Jérôme. }

33 comments:

  1. Google seems to be rolling this out as of this morning. In the office the guys to the left and right of me have the old Google search, but I was pleasantly confused when I found that I was the chosen one and my computer has the Streaming Search.

    However, there's no explanation of it and it took me 3 minutes to find out why I kept going to a search results page.

    Excellent idea, bad roll-out.

    - Scott of Warren, MI

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  2. Oh, seems it's not named "streaming" anymore, just now it switched to "instant is on" and also shows this banner:

    "Welcome to Google Instant
    Feelings of euphoria and weightlessness are normal. Do not be alarmed. Learn more"

    with a link to http://www.google.com/instant/#utm_campaign=launch

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  3. This is cool, but I don't know if I'll use it unless it comes, somehow, to Google Chrome's Omnibox search box, since that's where I do all of my Google searches.

    Thanks for the heads-up on the live streaming, Alex.

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  4. I feel like this is the start of something interesting but I can't put my finger on it. Realtime is the new Augmented Reality? Immersive computing? What the heck is it.

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  5. Would be nice if it worked from the iGoogle page.

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  6. Well, I certainly never thought of this as something I needed, but I guess it'll become normal. I'm getting used to trusting Google to know what I want better than I know it myself...

    One tangential comment: if Google can deliver search responses so amazingly quickly from their servers on the other side of the world, why does it take the Chrome task bar so much time to find an item from my bookmarks or my browsing history - which after all are saved on my own computer? There's often a delay of 2-3 seconds after I type something in the Chrome task bar before it brings up the matching bookmark in the suggestion menu below.

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  7. A question by "A... Chitu" just aired on the google youtube -- perhaps this blog author? And it seemed they recognized the name :)

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  8. Just like the last days' doodles, this doesn't work for me. I'm feeling left out :(

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  9. A few days back, a google blog announced that a single search is equivalent to producing 0.2g of CO2 into the air, I wonder if the new streaming search would imply an increase in this emission.

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  10. This is good when I will be using long tail keywords but for shorter keywords I believe I can type faster than their suggestions...
    Still I'm sure it's going to be very useful for many Google search engine users.. Nice feature !!!
    What about you? Do you think this feature is going to be handy for you as well?

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  11. Somehow I get distracted by so many result changes and eventually I might forget what I am looking for.

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  12. something intresting i found..when you search for dirty things like 'sex movies' the instant search is automatically disabeld and you get the message : Press Enter to search.

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  13. Wow, this really rolls out nicely, but it'll be interesting to know, how people undermine it with attacks. Since, google is predicting, it can unintentionally mislead people. which can be used to marketing advantages.

    Regards
    Vaid, Abhishek

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  14. Yes, I see 2 bad thinks:

    - SafeSearch enabled by default, it can't be disabled
    - Special search parameters are also disabled, example:
    site:website.com

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  15. The test link doesn't work for me. Either something's up with this network (college) or Google decided to disable that parameter.

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  16. Omnibox integration is a must

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  17. Weird: I didn't realize this morning what was going when the grey Google logo appeared on their HP. I didn't return to the computer until this evening (after hearing about Google Instant from a few friends) and now it's NOT appearing: just the standard logo and search. I can;t figure out how to activate it -- only the link at the beginning of this post let me try it out.

    Did they turn it off? Or did my ISP (Comcast)?

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  18. Great idea for those that go to Google's site to search. I do all of my searching in the Firefox Awesome Bar. This way I'm not just stuck using one search engine and can switch between them very quickly using keywords. Firefox makes this much easier than Chrome.

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  19. Firefox comes with "I'm Feeling Lucky!" as it's default search. With a little experimentation you can make that the default search in all of the top browsers except Safari. You'll need a bookmarklet for that browser.

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  20. Is this gimmick to their increase market share? When each time the results refresh, will it be counted as a search by the user. When I have 3 words in my query, the results will be generated 3 times.

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  21. Do you really think that Google needs to increase market share? Google's market share is bigger than 90% in some countries.

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  22. Yes, till now instant search loaded on my pc for two times . It is great but i am confused y it is loading on random basis and not constant on my pc.

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  23. Irha; using search and using computers sure does use some energy. Those who care about their CO2 footprint should study the numbers. Hint; shower quicker, shutting off the water while shampooing yourself, and use public transport instead of a car or taxi whenever you can. Use smaller screens and laptops instead of stationary powerhungry computers. Perhaps someone could build a browser extension that calculates your CO2 footprint for your internet use, and your computer use, so you can buy carbon offsets to make up for it. Most human activities are more power hungry than using internet.

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  24. integrate this elegantly with chrome's omnibox and this'd be perfect..

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  25. 1) You might as well dispense of the "Google Search" and "I'm Feeling Lucky" buttons (since this renders them useless.
    2) SafeSearch is now mostly pointless since switching it off still filters your search results (try instant searching for a "blue tit". I don't believe Google fell into the Scunthorpe trap.)
    3) There is a Javascript (?) bug when switching between search types. Altering your search terms from an autocompleted query and then clicking "Images", "Maps", etc. will still just search for the autocompleted term. QA fail.
    4) The wasted bandwidth hurts my sensibilities.

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  26. (1) I agree, but Google probably keeps the buttons for consistency. The "I'm feeling lucky" button will be removed.

    (2) SafeSearch is a filter for search results, not for search suggestions.

    (3) That's not a bug. If you don't press Enter or adjust your query, Google's prediction is your query.

    (4) Google estimates that you'll get 5-7 search results lists for each search, on average. If you have a slow internet connection, it's a good idea to disable this feature.

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  27. I tried it after their launch yesterday, its pretty good, I will definitely use it.

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  28. Regarding SafeSearch: Filtering my search results when I type "blue tit" is not the same as filtering my search suggestions when I type "blue tit". If I type "blue tit" I still get suggestions (i.e. possible search completions) but I don't get any results despite having disabled SafeSearch (all I get is "press enter to search"). Therefore, SafeSearch is broken.

    Regarding the Javascript bug, I wouldn't want to search for blue tit with safe search off and then click images because who knows what I'd get. So, when I search for blue tit and then empty my search query and click "Images", I don't want to see the results for "Blue tit" - as I currently do. This bug introduces the need for another button press, as I have to specifically search for an empty query before switching to Images to avoid seeing porn.

    Regarding the wasted bandwidth: Quite. I generally don't want 5-7 search results for a single Google search.

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  29. Google - The Gaint, is coming up with lots of new features to make a user friendly search.

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  30. GREAT WORK GOOGLE!!! :) KEEP IT UP

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  31. i like this google instant very much. It shows real time screenshor besides the result which is the coolest feature i have ever seen.

    Cheers

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  32. The instant search rocks! I'm wondering when does Google exactly count it as a perfect search, because one can type a few characters and then type the rest after a while.

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  33. http://www.tcsultimatixs.com/2017/04/tcs-webmail-login-webmailtcs-com.html

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