You may have heard, or noticed, that Google has fundamentally changed today the way that they’re going to bring search results to users. Called Google Instant the new search box found on Google.com will provide search results to visitors as they type in their search query. The new feature combines the Google search suggest feature with the search results that Google thinks you’re looking for. If their first guess isn’t right, they’ll continually update as you type and will show you the results of their best guess, instantly.
Its great to see revolutions in search and other technologies as it allows all of us to find more information easier, faster, and more relevant to what we’re looking for. It also allows for us to complete tasks faster and find more solutions to more problems.
But, technology also allows us to see interesting little facts. I must admit that while I watched the live announcement of this new Google Search feature that I instantly started testing the results. As promised, typing the letter W showed me todays weather, Searching “The American Showtimes” displayed me exactly when I could catch the movie, and typing top queries still showed Maciverse.com in the top query result.
As I continue to explore, I got curious to see what Google Instant thought of Apple, one of their leading competitors. Interestingly enough, Google Instant seems to have a positive opinion of Apple.
When searching the phrase “Apple is Awesome” Google Instant quickly displayed its top 10 results and ~27 million other results. I thought I’d test the opposite of “Apple is Awesome” and found that Google didn’t have much to say at all. Searching for “Apple Sucks” in Google Instant returned 0 results.
I’m sure that Google actually was smart enough to put an “Instant” block on search phrases or words that could potentially be questionable. I am a bit surprised though that “sucks” would fit into such phrases.
Google Instant on Safari
Google has enabled this feature on their Google.com page for signed in Google Account users. But they don’t plan on stopping there. Google Instant will make its way to mobile browsers on devices like Android phones and I imagine the Google App for iPhone. Google also plans on bringing the functionality to browsers search boxes. It will be interesting to see how Google is able to incorporate this type of functionality with Safari. It may just a Safari Extension to accomplish the task.
Have you found any interesting results with Google Instant? If so, please share in the comments.
