Google Announces Google Instant search

Ever since Google entered the vast space of the Internet search market back in 1998, it has remained the market leader. However, with Microsoft's Bing gaining ground, Google has decided to make the biggest change to its search engine since inception.

Earlier today, Google held an event at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art to unveil their latest advancements in web search, which turned out to be the largest change to the Google search formula since it's creation back in 1998. The new feature, rightfully called Google Instant, allows users of Google's search engine to automatically begin searching without finishing their queries, hitting the "enter" key, or clicking the search button. Instead, Google automatically begins streaming in results as you type. The most intriguing part of Google Instant, however, is not the streaming of search queries as the user types. It is instead the "search before you type" mentality that Google is saying this product embodies. Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Search Products and User Experience at Google, wrote in a blog post earlier, "Our search-as-you-type demos were thought-provoking—fun, fast and interactive—but fundamentally flawed. Why? Because you don’t really want search-as-you-type (no one wants search results for [bike h] in the process of searching for [bike helmets]). You really want search-before-you-type—that is, you want results for the most likely search given what you have already typed." So, how does this work? Well, rather than searching for what you have typed into the search field at that moment, Google instead pings its extensive collection of websites for what it thinks you are searching for. The search field will automatically complete the current query, beyond what is already typed, in grey text. Google is dynamically predicting what you are searching for and, if it's wrong, just keep typing and it will continue to dynamically adjust until the search query is correct. Google's suggestions drop-down is still around, however, for easily changing the search query from the current one to another one of Google's predicted suggestions. Google has said that this feature required immense planning. But, they feel that it will pay off, as Google feels that the service is one that many people will come to find immensely useful. Google also believes that it will save "11 hours with each passing second" that would have normally been spent searching. As with normal Google product releases, this is a rolling international release, and it should be available soon to all people on most platforms. Google has said that Instant will be available on mobile platforms (i.e. iPhone, Android, etc.), but it isn't available yet. The plan, according to Google, is to "release it soon."