In theory, I think it’s a great idea, certainly a good next step for Google in terms of helping people get the results they want quicker.
But…
[list][*]It’s much quicker for me to search straight from the address bar than go to Google’s page.
[*]Even if it wasn’t quicker, for some bizarre reason, using Opera I can only get that damn stupid iGoogle page, no matter what I try I can’t get the straight Google search page that you can get in every other browser, so I would never go to the Google search page. Plus they say it doesn’t work on Opera.
[*]Sometimes there’s a definite latency to it, I guess if you start your query with a more popular word (eg “how to…”) while it sorts through the squillions of options. That’s irritating, as is the confusion as results appear, disappear and shuffle round while you’re trying to concentrate on typing in your search query, and it’s irritating that it does it without asking you and with no immediately obvious way to stop it.[/list]
Exactly. When people talk about Caffeine or Instant or any other search engine initiative being “the death of SEO”, it just shows up the fact that they don’t have the first cue what they are talking about. Those search results have got to come from somewhere, and they’ve got to be ranked in order somehow, and that’s where SEO plays its part. Yes, there may be a change in some of the strategies and techniques that work best, but the beast is still the same beast underneath.
Everyone knows that cats have a notoriously short attention s…ooh look, shiny!
I find that google instant helps me pick the better search terms for finding what I want, I’m probably one of the not-so-few people that suffer from the total inability of finding anything worthwhile with google, mostly because I can’t pick the right words for what I want.
Google instant on the other hand shows me what I get for typing the wrong words and lets me fix the bad search terms without having to click the search button again and again or having to scroll down the page, I just type words until the site that I want pops out as the top link,
then I do a cool shortcut that I learned thanks to all this: enter the words into google instant until what you want is first, then press the down arrow key, then the left arrow key, no mouse needed! finally! yay!
so it’s not the speed of the search, it’s the reduced clicking that saves time, for me at least.
p.s. the curiosity factor that poes mentions is not really a bad thing
I was merely replying to someone who claimed it wasn’t obvious how to turn it off.
As for your criticisms of it, with respect, they seem absolutely typical of someone who is afraid of change. It’s true that SEO may change as a result of the continuous stream of new technology implemented by Google. I for one will embrace the changes that it brings. I always look forward to staying ahead of the game as the game changes. I don’t think therefore, (this might change SEO) is a valid criticism.
Google already suggests popular terms so the only reason people may end up searching for the popular terms more is because they ARE what they were actually looking for and with the Instant Google feature enabled the searcher can see this before they finish typing.
All that said, Google Instant is in it’s infancy and problems are bound to occur here and there. If Google has some kind of “evil” motive behind this new feature, it’s certainly yet to reveal itself.
With great power comes great responsibility. Maybe there is some plan going on. Instead of neutralizing the world, were everybody can see the same thing, they seem to be viewing us in regions.
It kind of makes you think about net-neutrality a bit here. Almost like they’re gearing people to do a certain thing.
You have to admit, the Netherlands is part of the European Union, and is supposedly part of a political union, and almost acting like one big country between all European States, were we can freely travel and live between EU countries.
It makes you think a bit though, why did Google not transfer you to the US version, but the UK? Why are they forcing you to see the UK version? I hope my results are of the worldwide web, and not it’s UK/EU version of the world-wide web.
I suggest if google is always redirecting you, to get some anti-redirect software
That’s a bit harsh, look at the trouble I have to go to to see the web as the web. If I type Google.us it’s because I was to see Google.us.
