Google's Instant Search - Is it Worth the Hype?
Google has rolled out its new Google instant which searches "as-you-type." But is it worth all that hype?
1. It's already been done before:
I heard about their project about 2 years ago. It started out as an obscure project and remained that. Keyboardr does the same thing. Only better.
2. Is it really needed?
Do you really want to be so instant with search results? Of course you have 2 seconds (or even less) to spare for search results. We're already an impatient lot and ever increasing Internet connection speeds are a sign of that.
3. It is distracting.
To say the least, Google's instant search is distracting, it keeps fetching results and makes me read the results as I type out my complete search term. I understand that Google's trying to improve my search skills. But the fact is, I already know what I am looking for.
4. It is not green!
More search means more queries and more processing, and all that does not add up to an energy efficient process. And all that for what? I'm not even using most of the results.
5.Quicker, not better.
It doesn't necessarily make search results better. It just means that you will continue to get results for every word/part of the word you are searching for. It could help when you don't exactly know what you are searching for, though.
To summarize, we really were doing pretty well even without Google's instant search. But then, maybe Google's just creating the need for such a service, in the same way that Gmail laid down the benchmark for a web-mail service.
Has Google's instant changed the way you look at search? Do you really think that as you type results improve search productivity?
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