Google Tests New Feature: Search As You Type

[deepsand]

Originally Posted by howboutthat

With that being said, if someone was searching for "How to make a bomb with a pepsi bottle" you can optimize your website for "How to make a bomb", and "How to make a bomb with pepsi". I'm sure I could have thought of better examples where the shorter version means much more and may relate to what the person wanted to completely type in. The point is, if you optimize for the first portions of the search, people may see your website before they fill in the rest of the query.

This will, of course, depend on the distraction factor, to which proficient touch-typists will be the more susceptible. Those employing the Columbus method - find a key and land on it - will, by habit, be less aware of interim screen changes.

Initially, there will also be the curiosity factor; how many may have their habits permanently altered is a speculative matter.

Needless to say, those who do follow the dancing pixels will experience both increased eye fatigue and decreased productivity. One might wonder to what extent Big G considered the physiology of reading, and conducted observational trials using at-arms-length subjects.

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[Dan]

Originally Posted by howboutthat

I mentioned about how Google is going to have to take some kind of step to know the difference between what people are actually searching for and a half typed search query.

They've already had that running under the auto-complete. This really is just the next step.

Going so far as to say to do SEO for letter combinations is somewhat absurd. But I think there is some kind of value to doing it, in spite Google guessing what you want to type.

There won't be any value in trying to do SEO for letter combinations, because the algorithm and SERPs haven't changed. It's not looking for "ho" from "how to make a bomb out of a pepsi bottle".

With that being said, if someone was searching for "How to make a bomb with a pepsi bottle" you can optimize your website for "How to make a bomb", and "How to make a bomb with pepsi". I'm sure I could have thought of better examples where the shorter version means much more and may relate to what the person wanted to completely type in. The point is, if you optimize for the first portions of the search, people may see your website before they fill in the rest of the query.

What you've indicated here is that long-tail keyphrases will become more prevalent. This may be true, but it isn't the same as doing SEO for letter combinations. Long-tail keyphrase SEO, will no doubt still be very important.

WRITE FOR PEOPLE, NOT FOR BOTS.

indeed

edit below

Originally Posted by deepsand

This will, of course, depend on the distraction factor, to which proficient touch-typists will be the more susceptible. Those employing the Columbus method - find a key and land on it - will, by habit, be less aware of interim screen changes.

Initially, there will also be the curiosity factor; how many may have their habits permanently altered is a speculative matter.

Needless to say, those who do follow the dancing pixels will experience both increased eye fatigue and decreased productivity. One might wonder to what extent Big G considered the physiology of reading, and conducted observational trials using at-arms-length subjects.

There are also those of us who will have our phrase typed and ready to go before Google gets around to guessing.

I find your statement regarding people slowing down (decreased productivity) interesting, because on the flip-side Google is saying that GI actually improves productivity and search speed, by working out what you want and finding it faster. It could be a little from column A and a little from column B, which probably work out at negating each other so that everything stays the same

[flourtech]

Google instant search result is a good move to provide search result on google. This is more help full for the user they are looking for some product and services.

[deepsand]

Originally Posted by Dan

I find your statement regarding people slowing down (decreased productivity) interesting, because on the flip-side Google is saying that GI actually improves productivity and search speed, by working out what you want and finding it faster. It could be a little from column A and a little from column B, which probably work out at negating each other so that everything stays the same

Cannot, though, avoid increased eye fatigue, as scanning is an autonomic function.

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[deepsand]

Originally Posted by flourtech

Google instant search result is a good move to provide search result on google. This is more help full for the user they are looking for some product and services.

Precisely how so?

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[rujuta]

You all might like to read this blog. It says that Google Instance would not kill the SEO but over time it might change the SEO.

Google’s web search (and web search infrastructure) team tries to do several things well:
- We want the most comprehensive index of the web. We explore ways to crawl the web deeper, faster, and better, from increasing our index size or indexing speed to crawling web forms to discovering links in JavaScript.
- We try to return relevant, useful results. Hundreds of people work on lots of improvements to our ranking algorithms.
- We try to return your search results really fast.
- We try to improve our search user interface (UI).
................
The best SEOs recognize, adapt, and even flourish when changes happen.

The above bold line will be the big change.

Continue Reading: Thoughts on Google Instance


Faster Smarter Instant

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.

Continue Reading: About Google Instant

[deepsand]

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 inherent assumption appears to be that the user is a touch typist. Bad assumption.

If not, this clearly ignores eye fatigue.

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[reborn]

Bad searching for users that have a slow internet connection. For SEO game, Google share same chance for all people, you may do from a same starting line with SEO experts. A single letter will change your life now. lol

[VietnamVeteran]

Personally, I find Google Instant wasteful. I do not like to rely on Google to find the best resource for whatever I am searching for. I ignore the new feature anyways. We will have to give it time to see what the public says.

[snakeair]

Originally Posted by realestatesigns

Looks like it's up now, because Google keeps reading my mind!

Yup, yesterday they made this feature live. I had mentioned this yesterday. http://www.v7n.com/forums/google-for...ml#post1481088

You can still turn this feature off through your google preferences if you want the same old search box as we have been using 48 hours ago.

[nagrayenz]

It looks like Google does want to include more features in it search and other services. Currently, I use "peers" add-on for Firefox. It would also return instant results when I typing in the search box and not only for Google.

[DrewryMedia]

Originally Posted by snakeair

Yesterday i had posted the offical announcement from google about Google Instant. Today Google has yet another blog post on this feature but they talk about some of the behind the scenes stuff that was going on.

Make sure you read the blog post




Continued at: Google Instant: Behind The Scenes


Also noted in this blog post was this bit of information if you got that far in reading this blog post.



For the whole article visit: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/...nd-scenes.html

I personally thought that they were doing just fine with their search, until coming up with this recently. I don't always personally understand why they make so many changes in their search system, but as long as the AdSense revenue keeps coming in, I guess that allows the leeway to work on other things. Now, my question to you is...do you think they are doing this, because of serious competition with Bing? Recently, I just heard that Bing is now the search provider for YaHoO! , if I got the facts right....

[mjtaylor]

Originally Posted by deepsand

I've some experience using off-line applications that employ this technique. Personally, I find the constantly changing visual display distracting to the point of reducing my efficiency.

While useful for suggesting input strings, acting on partially completed input is an unnecessary waste of computing resources; and, here, of communications resources as well.

I find all the instances of red fonted search far more annoying and distracting than the fluctuating SERPs. It occurs to me (probably because I like being argumentative) that if Google can anticipate what I want, it might save me some time typing.

Originally Posted by Tech Maish

Ahh that will be a very useful feature.

Why?

Originally Posted by merockysingh

Yes, It is really interesting. But will it affect the SEO Process?

That's the real question, isn't it? On another discussion someone noted that "New York hot" might now be an important phrase to optimize if you are a New York hotel ...

For anyone seriously interested in the impact of this change, SEOBook's discussion on How Google Instant Changes The SEO Landscape may be worth your time.

[DrewryMedia]

Originally Posted by mjtaylor

I find all the instances of red fonted search far more annoying and distracting than the fluctuating SERPs. It occurs to me (probably because I like being argumentative) that if Google can anticipate what I want, it might save me some time typing.


Why?

That's the real question, isn't it? On another discussion someone noted that "New York hot" might now be an important phrase to optimize if you are a New York hotel ...

For anyone seriously interested in the impact of this change, SEOBook's discussion on How Google Instant Changes The SEO Landscape may be worth your time.

I don't get it. New York hot? Maybe because I 'm not into all of that deep optimization stuff. But ugh...why would someone want to optimize for that term for? Is that to potentially increase hotel room booking sales online? I'm not sure..

[deepsand]

Originally Posted by DrewryMedia

I don't get it. New York hot? Maybe because I 'm not into all of that deep optimization stuff. But ugh...why would someone want to optimize for that term for? Is that to potentially increase hotel room booking sales online? I'm not sure..

Some believe that, particularly if the users pauses, SERPs for partial query strings may be leveraged.

In this example, it is conjectured that a user intending to search for new york hotel may be served interim SERPs for new york hot prior to their entering ol.

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[mjtaylor]

Ah, but Google is smarter than that. I just searched New York hot; G assumes you are going to add -el and the results are the same as for New York hotels ... so that theory is now put to rest. Now if you press search after New York hot it will give you non hotel results, but the hotels SERPs are there, and you might as well stop typing and simply scroll down. Even New York h returns the same instant search results as does New York hotels.

[deepsand]

Originally Posted by mjtaylor

Ah, but Google is smarter than that.

Smarter than what?

Google is not prescient.

Originally Posted by mjtaylor

I just searched New York hot; G assumes you are going to add -el and the results are the same as for New York hotels ... so that theory is now put to rest. Now if you press search after New York hot it will give you non hotel results, but the hotels SERPs are there, and you might as well stop typing and simply scroll down. Even New York h returns the same instant search results as does New York hotels.

What does that suggest?

Try searchs for the following query strings, and look for what's different aside from different SERPs.

• new york hotel
• new york hostel
• new york highways
• new york history

I've a hunch; but, I'll await your observations before revealing, so as not to bias your results.
PPC ad profitability drives "presumed" query strings.
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[mjtaylor]

Ads?

[deepsand]

Originally Posted by mjtaylor

Ads?

Is that from your observations?

(For the record, I have not looked at Instant Search, but am working from a purely theoretical viewpoint.)

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[deepsand]

From 8 Google Instant Tips we read:

It's localized and personalized. The service weights results in favor of your search history, and searches that are local to you. For example, I live in San Diego, when I type "D" the first search that comes up is the California Department of Motor Vehicles, and "S" gets me "SDG&E," for San Diego Gas & Electric.

Type the Google alphabet. Typing "W" calls up weather as the first result. The whole list for me: Amazon, Bank of America, Craigslist, DMV (California Department of Motor Vehicles), Ebay, Facebook, Gmail, Hotmail, Ikea, Jeromes (a San Diego chain of furniture stores), Kaiser (for Kaiser Permanente), Lowes (the movie theater chain), MySpace, Netflix, Orbitz, Pandora, quotes, REI (outdoor gear retailer), SDG&E, Target (retailer), USPS (United States Postal Service), Verizon, Weather, Xbox.com, Yahoo, Zillow.

I get the same results whether I'm logged in or not, with private browsing switched on in Firefox, with cookies cleared, and with permission revoked for Google to use my location (which is actually a little disturbing -- why is Google still showing me search results for the local power company and furniture store if it's not supposed to know who or where I am?).

More than a little disturbing.

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