As we all know by now, Google has implemented Google Instant, in which the engine tries to automatically give suggestions on what we are searching for. In the past few days, since its implementation, there’s been a lot of buzz about it in forums (especially SEO forums), but for the life of me, I can’t understand why people are so worked up or worried over this. What about you?
To me, Google Instant is simply Google trying to improve its main product for its users, no big deal.
Personally, I’m not really a fan of Google Instant…..
My own search habits remain the same; I always know what I want to search for, and don’t need an automated machine giving me suggestions. In fact, I find the suggestions a little annoying and distracting (especially when you are in serious mood searching up a serious topic). I don’t even look down at the instant search results that appear – until after I am done with typing out my query. I do like the convenience aspect, since I can do less typing on shorter keywords and save what, two seconds?
For many people who are lazy or don’t have anything in particular on their mind, they might find Google Instant helpful. Yet, overall, I think this has more of a gimmicky feel than anything else. Especially, when recent reports suggested that Facebook has surpassed Google itself for traffic. Google would do better to address poor search results and doing more to weed out spammy, black/gray hat sites, or sites that give a poor user experience.
SEO marketers have been griping that Google Instant would distract people from typing in long tail keyword searches and reduce the traffic to their pages; fortunately, it maxes out at 4 word suggestions. If your website was getting traffic for a query, “Make money online right,” now Google suggests, “Make money online fast,” and then delivers the results. So you may lose traffic when some people settle for Google’s suggestion and browse down. Personally though, I’ve not noticed any negative impact from Google Instant for my sites.
Time will tell what effect Google Instant will have on web searches, and how it will impact Google. It may even turn out detrimental to Google, but hey, no matter what happens, I couldn’t resist jumping on the Google Instant buzz bandwagon 😉
Find Google Instant annoying? Here’s how to turn it off:
On your main Google page, look up at the top right hand corner of the screen. There is a link to your Search Settings.
Scroll down the bottom and there is an option to turn off or disable Google Instant. Alternatively, there is a small link on the right of your query box to turn it off, too (I turned mine off).