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Google Instant Search Released

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Re: Google Instant Search Released

#11

Post by davidw »

acqq wrote: post #5

Try typing "fuc" -- it's smart enough not to be instant :)

Works with some swear words in Italian too. Wonder if they compiled a list or if they've got an algorithm that says "wait, this is about to return some naughty results".

Re: Google Instant Search Released

#12

Post by arfrank »

davidu wrote: post #9

I'm really curious how they will count ad impressions in this new system. Can anyone find any comments on that? Google is CPC, but the number of impressions has a dramatic impact on price.

http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&#38...

Excerpt:

When someone searches using Google Instant, ad impressions are counted in these situations:

  * The user begins to type a query on Google and clicks anywhere on the page
  (a search result, an ad, a spell correction, a related search).

  * The user chooses a particular query by clicking the Search button, pressing 
  Enter, or selecting one of the predicted queries.

  * The user stops typing, and the results are displayed for a minimum of three 
  seconds.

Re: Google Instant Search Released

#13

Post by JangoSteve »

BTBurke wrote: post #6

So how long before we can buy our way to the top of the search term suggestions? What kind of analytics can you do about how streaming search changes the way people compose their keywords? It's an interesting new feature.

I actually wrote a post a while back about Google's search term suggestions [1]. Most interesting fact I found was that Facebook actually has one of the top-ten suggestions for the letter "w" because of people entering "www.facebook.com" into Google so often.

[1] http://www.alfajango.com/blog/google-one-letter-suggestions/

Re: Google Instant Search Released

#15

Post by rubyrescue »

Not sure if this was covered elsewhere, but this actually changes the SEO game in a subtle way. imagine you could rank for the term online deg but NOT online degree.

SEO's rejoice, this could be profitable for consultants and linkbuilders.

Re: Google Instant Search Released

#16

Post by acqq »

JangoSteve wrote: post #2

This is really cool, though I think I'd have to change my search habits dramatically to really benefit from it. It'd probably be better suited for people who don't know exactly what they're searching for. Then again, I wonder if it would just confuse them further.

Correct: there's real chance I'll forget what I wanted to search if I'm presented with something else shiny before! It's dangerous and it will mostly make popular searches even more popular. It's a positive feedback loop, often a bad thing.

Re: Google Instant Search Released

#17

Post by brown9-2 »

rubyrescue wrote: post #15

Not sure if this was covered elsewhere, but this actually changes the SEO game in a subtle way. imagine you could rank for the term online deg but NOT online degree. SEO's rejoice, this could be profitable for consultants and linkbuilders.

I'm curious if users will actually change their behavior because of this though.

For example, if you decide you want to go to google.com to search for "online degree", are you likely going to stop in the middle of typing your phrase when you notice some results appear?

For me the lag between typing and displaying of results seems a little too slow for this to really happen.

Re: Google Instant Search Released

#19

Post by jerf »

rubyrescue wrote: post #15

Not sure if this was covered elsewhere, but this actually changes the SEO game in a subtle way. imagine you could rank for the term online deg but NOT online degree. SEO's rejoice, this could be profitable for consultants and linkbuilders.

Did you try it? It doesn't search for the current search term, it searches for its current best guess. The instant search results for "online deg" and "online degree" are identical, because it's the same search. (I compared it to a direct search for "online deg" and it's not the same search.) There's no optimization for "online deg" to be made.

I don't think there's very much SEO implication here at all, actually, as the goal was already to be the top hit for a common Google search, and common Google searches will be what Google Instant already prefers.

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