An Instant review on Google Instant

If you followed the refreshingly simple and techie-style introduction of Google Instant Searchtoday, you probably felt some of these thoughts that instantly flashed through my mind (Caution: all Instant puns intended)






First, what's new?

It offers predictions and auto-fill. Start typing Ind, and it offer to fill in India, Indica etc in the drop-down. But we've had this before. Now, you will also see search results as you type!

What I immediately liked:

1. nice! now I don't have to type all the letters and move my mouse to click on the Button (soo 90's!)
   
2. oh wait, will it search for "State O" - that's nonsense? Nope! it predicts Ohio. smart!
   
3. hmm will it slow things down? Ok, it has to by definition because it's getting more data than before and talking to the server more often. However, if you have anything more than an old dial-up, you shouldn't worry too much about it. Even otherwise, as the Google UI person said, you will train yourself over time. Nice!

Any instant concerns? Note: this may change as I try it out some more

1. Will it show unintended / unwanted search results using partial words? That could be a bit of a concern, especially with all the junk and child-unsafe content on the Web
2. It surely speeds up searches and saves on clicks.. but does it also make my eye strain more by constantly going up and down to see the partial links. Kind of like the "Blink effect" - if I watch a blinking strobe light, my eyes will get strained.

So an instant gut reaction?

• Usefulness: Two thumbs up!
• Technology: Good, but not great. We've had AJAX for a while now, so this looks quite simple. I'm sure there's some brainpower in the prediction and UI analysis. But the basic mechanics of instant search are fairly straightforward for anyone who worked with AJAX before.
• Demo Presentation: I liked it because it's no-nonsense, no-gimmicks, Techie. But the whole style is a bit outdated. Haven't they seen this Jobs guy from Apple introduce his products?Google seems to be still addressing their first generation audience - the geeks like us. The videos were marginally better, but I'm sure that someone with a Flip can come up with a way cool'er demo and post it on Google's own Youtube.
  

By the way, I really must give it to google for the dynamic logo's they tried out in the last few days. It built up a nice hype, and gave it away without giving it all away.

thanks, vishy

Vishy Poosala

innovate & impact