Google Instant Search
Google’s latest search endeavor has been unveiled and is called “Google Instant”. Like its name suggests, its Google but with “instant” search results. (First news of this functionality can be found back in August when I blogged about dynamic real time search results secretly rolled out to selected web users.
Google reports that “Instant” will save internet users around 2-5 seconds per Google search however SEO agencies are now in panic mode as it may result in search rankings focused on page 1 no longer having the same impact as they did previously. It’s too early to tell what impact this major change will have on your website traffic or for pages appearing outside of the top 10 results and/or user search behavior.
The digital writing is on the wall for any old-school SEO methods that focused entirely on page 1 rankings as the be-all-and-end-all of online optimisation. How do you think Google Instant will impact search?
Sydney, AUSTRALIA
I think Google Instant will change the way users conduct internet searches. The use of a predictive set of search results simply makes the majority of users more reliant on a particular search engine for its results. As they become accustomed to this feature it will be expected for all other engines to follow suit and those that can’t afford this technological barrier will fail in market share. The only down side to this change will be that users may not physically navigate using the “next” button to view pages 2 & 3 of the search results as they will just amend their search query to populate a new set of results. In summary, initial testing of this feature strangely resembles a subtle internet search filter without the need for government legislation.
You have the same nick name as me ;P
I didn’t even realise the instant search until it came up with weird results