Yesterday, the Mountain View Giiiant decided to shake up the universe of users with a new feature on its search engine: Google Instant. This innovation has caught many by surprise, since this is a major change on what is probably the most efficient service and popular from Google. With Instant Google, searches are now dynamic, and the results are displayed as you enter text. Is it just a proof of concept, or are we really facing the future of Internet search?.
Since long ago I keep Google.com as home page in all my web browsers (Opera, Safari and lately Chrome). I haven't even tried Bing or Yahoo search, so Google has become a habit for me. In this way I have seen their changes over time, especially those related to drastic changes made to their interface. Instant Google's presentation drew the attention of nearly all digital media (also this blog), therefore, we expect a lot in the coming days.
Google search engine is like chickens to eggs, Google's art, it's star player. Their results are quite accurate and gives additional commands (such " ", -) an impressive level of flexibility. So, why take a risk and launch Instant now? According that was presented in the official event, static searches are slow; a search implies that the user wants the information as quickly as possible and Google Instant is the simple response to that demand. Of course, the word "simply" can only be used on the user side. Google has had to overcome a lot of technical details to make Instant a viable option, starting with the terrible workload increase on their servers. Preliminary versions of Google Instant multiplied by twenty the demand on the servers, but now they have reached values that requires two to three times the original charge generated by the static search.
Use Google Instant involves forgetting the enter key to confirm a search. The results are presented dynamically and automatically altered with each change made on the sentence, either by deleting words, adding, or altering its order. The first feeling is that Google actually gives users instant results faster, whereas it's possible to see results in advance as you type, without major inconveniences.
Instant Google seeks to enhance this by the fact that only some letters are needed to provide search results more or less consistent. However, an important detail about is that in some way it requires users to be much more precise in their search parameters. One thing is to get results faster, but another mix altogether to get junk faster. Perhaps the trick is to take those few extra seconds gained in the dynamic search and apply to the entry of more words to narrow the results. A position like this makes the search much more efficient but also demands more write speed by the user. This last detail might be a little uncomfortable in certain devices, such as those that use keyboards for mobile software. For now, Google Instant is available for non-mobile systems,
And here are some words from Othar Hansson, engineer at Google:
"Typing on a phone is just much slower, so the results are instantly displayed more useful"
A new technology that will save time and letters typed is always welcome in our mobile devices, where between physical or virtual keyboard, QWERTY or not, small or very small, is always less comfortable writing than doing it on a desktop computer.
Google promises in its announcement that soon all WebKit browsers (which includes Android and IOS) will have this feature available. But the ideal would have it in a widget, available at all times and ready for when needed. Accelerating the search for contacts, appointments, places, definitions, maps, directions, businesses and all kinds of information.
No comments:
Post a Comment