Google Instant- Meet the New Way to Search

Yesterday, Google announced the release of Google instant. Its pretty fun, you get the result as you type the word. Searching before even you type the complete word or sentence is another crazy invention of Google. They have been working on lots of features; such as the new Google priority mail, Google TV, Google phone and much more. Anyways, let’s focus on the latest Google Instant.

What is Google Instant?

Google Instant is search-before-you-type. In simple terms, once you start typing in the search bar, Google Instant takes whatever you have typed already  (even if it’s an incomplete word), predicts the most likely completion of the word or sentence and streams results in real-time for those predictions. This new feature of Google search seems like a faster and smarter way of finding stuffs on the internet. It is interactive and quite powerful.

Let’s take an example: If you are searching for “StarCraft 2 reviews” and you have already typed “StarCraft 2…”, Google will produce an instant search result even before you have completed your sentence. It will display the result based on your keywords and most likely, you will get StarCraft 2 reviews on the first page.

The Three Core Features of Google Instant

1. Dynamic Results – Google dynamically displays relevant search results as you type so you can quickly interact and find your stuffs online.
2. Predictions – One of the most fascinating technologies of Google Instant is the prediction. They predict the rest of the search query before you even complete typing. For example: if you are looking for “Chinese food in Richmond Virginia”, as you type “Chinese food in..”, Google Instant will predict your query and display a light grey text. If you see what you need, you simply stop typing, look down and find what you are looking for and click.
3. Scroll to search – Scroll through predictions and see results instantly for each as you scroll down.

How does Google Instant Help us?

Google Instant produces instant result of the keywords that you type; which means, search before you even type the complete sentence. You get your result faster and it is also accurate most of the time.

Beware: DONOT become a lazy-ass and completely depend on Google instant , although it produces instant accurate result for ton of keywords, sometimes, you might not get what are looking for unless you type the complete sentence.

For the official News, Check out About Google Instant

Which Browsers Support Google Instant?

I have tested them with the following browsers and it works like a charm

• Google Chrome
• Mozilla Firefox
• Internet Explorer 8
• Safari (Mac)

Opera Version 10 doesn’t support Google Instant. Maybe their future updates have this fixed. For now, I suggest firefox as it is the best browser available.

Here’s a video that explains Google Instant in Details

Updated (thanks to fernando for correcting me on the diaspora): In my next post, I will discuss the upcoming social networking site  Diaspora. Stay tuned and feel free to share this with your friends.

Enjoy and Prosper!