I saw quite a significant number of tweets mentioning Google Instant, and decided to check it out. Some people might already be aware of it or heard of it before but I am outdated, that I am willing to admit.
First, I went to the Official Google Blog where I saw Search: now faster than the speed of type.
Next, I tried it myself on Google homepage. It’s really impressive.
However, if you use a flaky connection like my Maxis Broadband you might see this:
It says “Google Instant is off due to connection speed. Press Enter to search”. It’ll behave like normal search.
Which also means that it can be turned off.
The prediction feature is quite nicely programmed too. Notice that its suggestions included the word “mac” because I am on a Mac. Not surprising since this is easily detected by the browser’s user agent string.
I bet the prediction considers many other factors too, including Geo-location.
I find it interesting that I can see this now, since in its tweet Google mentioned that “Google Instant is rolling out to people w/ Instant-capable browsers in France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain, U.K. & U.S.”
So the next time you see it, don’t be surprised!
… and tell me how you like it!
