Google Suggest Goes Localized, Better Spelling, Spelling Auto Correct

[engine]

Google Suggest Goes Localized, Better Spelling, Spelling Auto Correct [googleblog.blogspot.com]

However, just as people in the U.K. often look for different things than people in U.S., we’ve found that people in Seattle tend to look for different things than people in Dallas. So last week, we rolled out a version of Google Suggest that is tailored to specific metro areas in the U.S.

We’ve steadily improved this spelling technology over time, but recently we made some big strides in correcting misspelled names.

For now this enhancement is available in our English spelling system in the U.S. We'll be rolling out the change to other parts of the world and other languages in the coming months.

We auto-correct when we’re highly confident in our correction in order to get you the information you’re looking for that much faster. In the past week we’ve expanded auto-correction to 31 languages across over 180 domains, with more to come.

[tedster]

Well, it's a noble and understandable effort. I just hope the new spelling revisions stay in Google Suggest and don't migrate even further into the actual SERPs. There's enough query revision going on already.

[shorebreak]

I'm surprised more people aren't talking about this, including here on WebmasterWorld. I suspect this is one of the top 4-5 changes to Google's business for 2010 and imagine it will have a $500M+ positive impact on their revenues through higher CTR.

Other opinions on how much of Google's query volume is touched by Suggest?

[shorebreak]

Now that a few weeks have passed, anyone have ideas as to how the recently implemented localized & personalized Google Suggest is affecting a) types of queries; b) CTR on suggested searches vs prior; and c) overall search volumes. I'd love to hear in the context of hard data, either from AdWords campaigns people are running, or other data-driven anecdotes.