Google Instant Going Mobile
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We were all glad to see Google Instant get released in September. I even ditched my local Google search engine for Google.com just to be able to take advantage of the feature. It’s not that people were lazy to press the enter button before, but it’s quite nice to get search suggestions as well as search results as you’re typing. Leaving aside the time you save, I’ve also noticed that once I start typing something, results for something else are displayed. This has led me to discover a whole bunch of interesting websites I would have never thought of searching for. In any case, anything we can enjoy on our computers is nice to have on our mobiles as well.
Google announced ever since the release of Instant on the web that it would eventually offer the same technology for its mobile search application for smartphones. The time to enjoy Google Instant on mobile has come. The search engine giant has recently announced the launch of Google Instant for mobile, currently working on Apple’s iPhone and Android 2.2 smartphone devices. More operating systems will however be added in the near future.
As the company mentions on its blog, Google Instant is meant to make search faster by displaying actual search results as you type as well as predictions for what you’re looking for. This system saves valuable time on a desktop. On a mobile device, it’s even better. As most of you may have discovered, without a proper sized keyboard and a mouse, it takes a longer time to type and search for things on a smartphone. As a result, Google has made a beta version available for most iPhone and Android devices in the US. If you’re interested in trying it out and seeing just how well it works, you can do that by visiting google.com in your mobile phone’s browser and tapping the “Google Instant Turn On” link right underneath the search box. As an additional note, if you don’t see that link, just wait a moment and then refresh the page.
The mobile version of Google Instant is much like the desktop version you’ve probably tried by now. As soon as you start typing you’ll see predictions. Results for the first prediction will appear automatically. Moving to other predictions will display those results. Typing more will result in getting other predictions. Assuming you don’t want to get predictions and are already comfortable with what you’ve typed, you can just press the enter key. To get a better idea of how this works, be sure to watch the video above.
Google hopes that by adding Instant search on mobile it will completely change the experience users get out of it. The first thing smartphone owners should notice is a big improvement in speed when searching something, because of the new AJAX and HTML 5 implementation for mobile. This kind of technology will dynamically update the page with new results and not require you to load a new page for each search term. Because this service works best through 3G and WiFi, at any time when you don’t want to keep it on, you won’t have to leave the page. You’ll just have to tap the on and off link on the screen.
It didn’t take long for Google to roll this feature out. A mere two weeks ago Jonathan Rosenberg, Google’s senior VP mentioned that a release will happen quite soon. While some people accused Google of adding this feature because it would help them boost their search revenue streams, Rosenberg revealed that “from a resource standpoint, it’s actually pretty expensive.”According to EWeek, Google has purchased several more computer servers to deliver these results. A Google spokesperson refused to mention what the cost for building Instant and keeping it running properly was.11
