Google announces Google Instant AJAX Serps - Live Now!

[imbckagn]

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System: The following message was cut out of thread at: http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4198306.htm [webmasterworld.com] by brett_tabke - 11:42 am on Sep 8, 2010 (cst -5)

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I also have the the new Ajax results when I am logged out. It says the phrase below in a blue box when I type.

Welcome to Google Instant
Feelings of euphoria and weightlessness are normal. Don't be alarmed learn more.
This is the learn more link [google.com...]

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. Our key technical insight was that people type slowly, but read quickly, typically taking 300 milliseconds between keystrokes, but only 30 milliseconds (a tenth of the time!) to glance at another part of the page. This means that you can scan a results page while you type.

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.

[lets_learn]

I think Google Instant is going to favor the medium sized queries i.e. 2 words or may be 3 words if we stretch it a bit far.

Here's why:

If a user wants to search for one word query [widgets]. Now without Google Instant, he would have searched for it alright. Mission accomplished.

But with Instant, for a large number of one word queries Google is presenting results for predicted query which in most cases seems to be 2 or 3 word long.

So in this way traffic for head terms is being shifted towards medium sized queries.

[jaffstar]

I just started searching and made a typo in my search string. The results displayed the typo, trying to retype made feel dizzy as the page kept on updating... Suggesting a search query is one thing, but making the page auto-update multiple times is another.

Also, what I wanted was not coming through in the auto-suggest which makes the whole process (in this instance) irrelevant.

Simplicity is the key to success, over complicate a process (which they feel they are simplifying) can sometimes negatively impact a business model.

The last 10 years has trained a user to type and click search and then get a result. Their approach is groundbreaking/revolutionary but... will add value or do harm?

[drall]

It's in the wild east coast US, not logged in and seeing it through IE and firefox.

My mom called and thought the school she teachs at had a virus. Told her it's the new Google, she asked how to turn it off, told her to use Bing for now.

Nail > Coffin

[nomis5]

Makes the Bing "picture" look a bit feeble doesn't it!

This is a real change that has cost loads of money to research and implement. Only time will tell, but my guess is that it's a change for the better. A brave move and I wonder who has put their head on the block - if it works, mega-bonus at XMAS, if it fails, gruel and water for XMAS.

[UK_Web_Guy]

Instinct says less traffic for longer tail terms, but then that would mean decrease in relevancy on both paid & organic listings.

I can't see Google would make such a change if their testing suggested anything remotely like relevancy would be diminished, so that is the hope I am going to hang on to.

If not, then 1 & 2 words dominate all and relevancy goes out of the window..

[UK_Web_Guy]

Just reading the post of the adwords blog, you don;t have to be signed in on google.com - Instant is live for all on Google.com - only on the live local variants do you need to be signed in, e.g. google.co.uk - for now - this will be rolled out to all over the next few months - i.e. signed in or out.

edit - heres the link [adwords.blogspot.com...]

US guys - what impact did this have on traffic for yesterday September 8th?

[J_RaD]

instant is live for me now... wow I really do not like this at all, just screwing around with some queries and It gives me a headache.

start typing in "google sucks" and you'll see you will not get any instant results nor will you get in any auto suggest for many search terms that might paint goog in a negative way. Hmmmmm :-) I guess they are manipulating instant.

[mrguy]

I really don't get the benefit of this other than to give me a headache.

I'm predicting that as they see their search numbers decline even more this month, this is going to get pulled just like Wave or Buzz. Those were all supposed to be game changers to.

Just because the results change with every key typed does not make it any better. If I'm looking for something, I'm going to type it in and not stop between each keystroke to see what's what.

This has got to be one of the most stupid ideas the eggheads in the plex have ever devised.

They need to get over their Bing envy and get back to being what made Google great.

The spin Google is putting on this about saving me time makes me want to puke. How is it going to save me time stopping after each letter to look at the results when if I just typed in the phrase I was looking for and hit enter, I'd find what I want.

Oh, that's right, I need to be on Bing to make it that simple, that's how Google used to be.

They also need to quite using their egg heads in the plex for their focus groups. Those people don't think like the average searcher.

Google has really jumped the shark this time.

[edited by: mrguy at 2:10 pm (utc) on Sep 9, 2010]

[networkliquidators]

I used Google instant to find my new homepage for Bing. Thanks Google!

[scottsonline]

On a brand new state of the art machine it flickers at a rate that could initiate a seizure in some...joking I think but the faster you type the most it flickers to the point of making me dizzy. It actually makes me sick and not because I hate it.

If I wanted this type of thing I'd sign in.

I'll say it again, if Google really wants to improve the user experience clean up the results by removing duplicate websites for the same company offering the same products, the spam sites etc. I do not like the fact that things are becoming less and less transparent and we have less and less means to verify we're not getting hosed on Adwords.

[maximillianos]

It is interesting.... I find myself browsing results completely unrelated to what I'm looking for just because they are appearing there.

I see this as pretty useful not only for finding new content, but also for finding variations of what I'm looking for that I would never have found if it just used my entire search phrase.

Definitely interesting stuff.

[drall]

First data rolling in from logs, lots of partial words and phrases!

- visit count same (throttled for years)
- bounce rate up
- pageviews down
- time on site down

So we are seeing lots of partial searches and back buttons being hit.

[James2]

I'm still a bit too green with SEO to know much but after watching the launch youtube video and reading this thread my thoughts are:

-people will spend more time on google rather than clicking through to the results it brings
-it will be distracting so you will actually spend more time searching around the subject rather than going to what you want
-single adwords costs will rocket
-a lot of people won't use it as their computers may not be powerfull or updated to have it appear (ie a lot of people i spoke to didn't see the google balls earlier in the week)
-big brands will pump lots of advertising funds into google (i am still staggered at the amount that was suggested on here that apple spent in the launch of the iphone 4 in one month)
-people's computer literacy varies immensely, people who 'don't get it' will just use something else like bing rather than try and work out how to turn it off
-if you google instant 'how do i turn turn off google instant' the page will flicker in a certain manner that will hypnotise you into spending your entire marketing budget on adwords

[netmeg]

I don't much care for it myself, but it looks like some of my clients (and some of my sites) are going to win bigtime, at least in the short term.

Comments I heard from non-industry folks throughout the day were along the lines of "Wow, this is cool!" "I could play with this all day!" and so on.

Once the new and shiny wears off, will be interesting to see what remains.

[ChanandlerBong]

this reminds me of a UK football show that were discussing how fast they could show replays of, for example, a penalty kick. The tech guy said, "because of disc technology, theoretically, we could show you a replay before the ball even hit the back of the net. But just because we CAN do that doesn't mean we SHOULD."

message to google: just because you can doesn't mean you should.

[moTi]

the point is, many if not most of the intermediate results are inevitably irrelevant to the search. is it worth it then?

It is interesting.... I find myself browsing results completely unrelated to what I'm looking for just because they are appearing there.

"I could play with this all day!"

interesting for a while, maybe. but googles' selling point is that it will actually save us time, right?

[MrFewkes]

Not even hard to program with search already inplace.

I do find it interesting on one respect - the number of searches sent in to them has at least doubled with the flick of a switch. They will know - but maybe even gone up by 10 times.

Thats some processing increase.

Still - it looks like something i'd have programmed when I was about 13 years old.

[mrguy]

Next, they will try to get comscore to skew the results to show that all the increased searches after each key stroke actually count as searches so they should show a huge boost which will in turn offset the huge decline they are going to see from actual searchers switching to something else.

[malinkam]

don't show me results until I tell you what I'm looking for!

I don't think this thing will be around for too long. It's like giving someone an answer before they get a chance to ask a question, how annoying is that!

[ponyboy96]

Yeah...I don't like this change. It's very distracting to me, so I turned it off.

[edited by: tedster at 8:50 pm (utc) on Sep 9, 2010]
[edit reason] moved from another location [/edit]

[mrguy]

It's like giving someone an answer before they get a chance to ask a question, how annoying is that!

You have it all wrong. You just didn't know what you really wanted when you started typing but Google read your mind and will show you what you really wanted in their opinion and you better click a few of their ads while you're at it so they can keep the lights on at the Plex.

[J_RaD]

"im sear
im searing steaks

"im search
im searching for my ex g/f

"im searching for another"
im searching for another new car

"im searching for a new search engine ARG!"

[LostOne]

My limited experience today shows a boon to local results. After typing in a top key phrase (plus a space as if to enter another letter) in my industry the results loaded up on businesses handling the product in the area. It looks like another move to improve local results returned for the query and not necessarily information on “green widgets.” Mom and pop website owners may be jumping for joy…if people scroll down the page.

[freejung]

So far, just looking at my logs you wouldn't know anything had changed. Maybe it hasn't rolled out to enough people to make an impact, or maybe there will be more changes in behavior as people get used to it.

[dickbaker]

It's like giving someone an answer before they get a chance to ask a question, how annoying is that!

Yeah. It reminds me of my sister-in-law.

[Whitey]

One thing i noticed is that organic results drop deeper below the fold , so as a user i spend more irritating time scrolling up and down.

This may not be a straight forward roll out. No doubt plenty of tests ahead.

[nickreynolds]

Anyone got any idea what kind of percentage of searches this will affect?

Obviously people who search from a toolbar are unafffected, as are (if i read this right) people who are not signed in to Google.

[Vespasian]

I can tell the results Google is giving out are less relevant from my logs. Total visitors is about the same, but adsense click rate is down. The reason is because I'm getting as many or more visitors coming to the site, and it is not filling their need. And those who should be finding it, are not.

[J_RaD]

One thing i noticed is that organic results drop deeper below the fold , so as a user i spend more irritating time scrolling up and down.

This may not be a straight forward roll out. No doubt plenty of tests ahead.

users don't know the difference between paid and organic.

[zehrila]

So for Blue Widgets, i am going to get back links with an anchor

B
Bl
Blu
Blue
Blue W
Blue Wi
Blue Wid
Blue Widg
Blue Widget
Blue Widgets

Is that what Google wants me to do? I find "Instant" distracting and wasting my time. If i need to lookup for a term Online Degrees, by the time i have typed Online, it might show results "OnlineMovies dot whatever" site? i'm gonna be distracted and click on it and might start watching the movie, such a waste of time.