Maybe it is time to buy Google stock. I think they have found a way to squeeze water out from a rock. At least I think they have. Lets analyze what Google’s Instant really is.
So, is this feature developed to give the user a better experience or to benefit Google? Well this depends on who you ask. It’s like in my favorite movie, The Matrix, the reality is seldom as it appears. Most people see this as a benefit, but some realize that it is much more than what it seems on the surface.
If you analyze the procedure, you will see that it speeds up your thinking process a bit by suggesting what “Other people” are searching for when they start typing those letters. But is it what other people are searching for or what Google wants to lead you to search for? That’s the question. Is it giving more weight or relevance to keywords that are more lucrative to Google or just more relevant to you?
If you think the latter then you are thinking maybe Google knows what you really want to search for better than you do? In some cases this is true. But IMHO the first results that are shown are those that Google gets paid handsomely for. So you will be tempted to choose one of those rather than go on with the search you first intended.
Another issue that I think is going to be controvesial, and probably bad for advertisers is the fact that their ads are going to load without the possibility or the relevance of content from the searcher. This means the CTR will drop tremendously, making it look like the ad is not very relevant to the person conducting the searches.
The positive part for Google is that, it will be able to serve more ads, but more important than that, it will be able to lead people to the water faster and make them drink more often than not. So instead of waiting for someon to type the entire phrase and waiting for them to press “Search” it will already have shown the results and be on the way to the next search (Less idle time for the servers).
So this is my take on it. Time will tell, but in the meantime, I think revenue would have gone up at Google, some Microsoft and Yahoo Engineers will have lost their jobs (Why didn’t you think of this? what are you getting paid to do…), and perhaps Google might be on the next revolutionary idea that “We really need” but don’t know it yet 🙂
This is my opinion, I welcome yours.