Google shook up the search marketplace a couple of weeks ago when it announced Google Instant. It’s super fast, mostly accurate, and all around awesome. It has the potential to change search as we know it. Instant hasn’t affected the way I search just yet but here’s a couple of things that excite me about Google Instant.
Even Search Can Change
Search, to me at least, seemed like a stagnent market. Sure, Microsoft introduced Bing a while ago and that was alright for a while but Google has dominated search for a long time and nobody except Microsoft and Yahoo were in search of a replacement.
Mobile Search
Everything on a mobile device needs to be faster. Google Instant gives you a bit more speed so you can move on and get to the results. When it’s rolled out to mobile devices it will mean more time looking at whatever your searching for and less time typing your search query.
Better Queries equal Better Results
Even the most proficient Googler can sometimes struggle with how to google something. Whatever you’re looking for has to be out there but how do you find it sometimes? Google Instant will give power users insight into how to better structure their search queries to meet Google’s expectations. It won’t help everyone but I’m hoping that it will help me.
Beyond Google.com
I use iGoogle as a dashboard to the sites I use most. As of now Google Instant is not on for iGoogle. As cool as I think Instant is, I’m not going to click the “Classic Home” link every time I do a search. Along those same lines, I don’t even go to google.com for most of my searches. I just type my search in Chrome, Firefox, or whatever browser I’m using. I think Instant will be really cool, and useful, when browsers take advantage of it with their built in search. I’m not sure exactly how they would do this but I’m sure someone is working on it somewhere.
I love where Google went with Instant. I also loved that they surprised us with it. To me, the things that make it exciting are still yet to come. Hopefully Google has some of the same ideas. Something tells me whatever they do will only improve the way we find information online.
M.