Google Instant Search Now Live - Search As You Type

Google Instant is a new search enhancement that shows results as you type. Google Instant is search-before-you-type. Instant takes what you have typed already, predicts the most likely completion and streams results in real-time for those predictions yielding a smarter and faster search that is interactive, predictive and powerful.

Analysis on people search behaviour revealed 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 people can scan a results page while you type. This key technical insight lead to the creation of Google Instant.

Google needed a host of new technologies including new caching systems, the ability to adaptively control the rate at which Google show results pages and an optimization of page-rendering JavaScript to help web browsers keep up with the rest of the system, to bring Google Instant to life. Google produced a system that was able to scale while searching as fast as people can type and think-all while maintaining the relevance and simplicity people expect from Google.

Google Instant is starting to roll-out to users on Google domains in the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Russia who use the browsers, Chrome v5/6, Firefox v3, Safari v5 for Mac and Internet Explorer v8. Users on domains other than Google.com can only access Google Instant if they are signed in to a Google Account. If you don't want to see results as you type, you can turn off Google Instant by clicking the link next to the search box on any search results page, or by visiting your 'Preferences' page.

Benefits of Google Instant

Faster Searches: By predicting your search and showing results before you finish typing, Google Instant can save 2-5 seconds per search.

Smarter Predictions: Even when you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, predictions help guide your search. The top prediction is shown in grey text directly in the search box, so you can stop typing as soon as you see what you need.

Instant Results: Start typing and results appear right before your eyes. Until now, you had to type a full search term, hit return, and hope for the right results. Now results appear instantly as you type, helping you see where you’re headed, every step of the way.

Watch the Video that explains Google Instant.