Google Instant Search – A to Z

The somewhat anticipated launch of Google’s latest enhancement has gone live today.  Google Instant Search is basically a progression on from the keyword suggestions which have been shown for some time to users as they type into the Google search box.  Instant Search takes this a  significant step further and actually updates the search results themselves as the user types.  Google say that this should reduce the average time taken to perform a search by between 2-5 seconds and thereby save Google/The World more than 3.5 billion seconds every day!

There have already been inevitable criticisms of this by those who decry the additional bandwidth this service requires (miniscule when compared with watching a Youtube rant on the same subject) and those who find the whole idea of change just too bewildering – how long before Time moans about it tomorrow?  For me, this is a very interesting development and makes the deep understanding of a particular target audience even more important in terms of optimising a website for search.

If you haven’t seen it already you should head over to Google to try it out or read a more detailed description (and watch a video) direct from the horse’s mouth.

Oh, and the A to Z?  Well an interesting exercise in vanity/brand awareness is looking at which websites are shown for each single letter of the alphabet.  I’ve seen a USA version but for your interest here is how it breaks down for the UK (for me at least, today).

A is for	Argos		N is for	Next
B is for	BBC		O is for	O2
C is for	Currys		P is for	PayPal
D is for	Debenhams		Q is for	QVC
E is for	eBay		R is for	Rightmove
F is for	Facebook		S is for	Sky
G is for	Google Maps		T is for	Tesco
H is for	Live.com (Hotmail)		U is for	Youtube
I is for	ITV		V is for	Virgin Atlantic
J is for	John Lewis		W is for	BBC Weather
K is for	KLM		X is for	Xbox
L is for	National Lottery		Y is for	Youtube
M is for	MSN		Z is for	Zara

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