Google's Instant Search

I was searching the internet working on a physics assignment earlier this week and it struck me that Google’s search finisher (the thing that pops up with suggestions in a list underneath the search bar as you type) probably saves a whole lot of time, in addition to providing mediocre entertainment in some cases. I quickly abandoned my rapidly-approaching-its-deadline physics homework to do some tangential research, in which I found out that the magnificent search completer referenced above is called “Google instant”. According to Google, the instant search feature saves users an average of 2 to 5 seconds per query. Prior to Google instant, the average search took 9 seconds, and some searches took upwards of 30 seconds. Further statistics reveal that Google users are saved around 3.5 billion seconds per day, or 11 hours per second. I find this absolutely incredible. This number of seconds (equivalent to nearly 111 years if my math is correct) is enormous. It really speaks volumes about the sheer number of people using Google and the internet on a daily basis.

I think it is very interesting that Google went through the process of creating a new technology to save people less than 5 seconds on a search. It makes it apparent that search technology has reached a point where efficiency is nearing the best conceivable level. Not only did they have to develop 15 new technologies to get this instant search thing working, they also had to ensure that the feature, when being used on slow connections, would not end up being detrimental. I didn’t even know that the feature was toggle-able but apparently you can go into preferences within Google and turn it off manually. However, I don’t see any reason to do so, seeing as I have become accustomed to having Google read my mind and fill in the rest of my search bar with something close enough to what I am looking for to save me a valuable 3 seconds. In fact, I can hardly remember using Google at all before the addition of their instant searching technology. It just goes to show you that, as is the case here, with Facebook, and countless other new technologies, we as human beings have a hard time remembering things as they were before we had access to such luxury as social networking and accelerated searching.