Google Instant Previews - Now on Android and iOS
Remember way back when I said that Google Instant (the real-time display of search results as you type) was practically made for mobile devices? No? OK, here's a link to the post to refresh your memory.
The feature works well on Android and iOS devices assuming they're running late versions of their respective operating systems. Now, however, Google has taken the next step in bringing instant features to mobile platforms. Known as Instant Previews, users can not only get search results displayed in real time, but can now click on a magnifying glass next to these instantly-displayed results and get immediate previews of them.
According to Google's official blog,
To use Instant Previews on your mobile device, do a search on www.google.com and tap on the magnifying glass next to any search result. A side-by-side comparison view of the webpage previews for the first page of search results will appear. When you find a result you like, tap on the preview to go straight to the website. It’s as easy as finding a recipe for poaching an egg:
If I sound enthusiastic, it's because I live in a rural area where 3G isn't easy to come by. Of course, this is the United States. There are places without 3G is Manhattan. Point being that anything that has me loading fewer tabs on my mobile device to "quickly" check for the right search results is a good thing. Remember that technique from dial-up days when Mozilla first introduced tabbed browsing (I know, other browsers introduced it first, including AOL, but Mozilla made it mainstream)? You'd run a search, open the best results each in a new tab, go get a cup of coffee, and come back to several pages loaded and ready to evaluate. I have no desire to continue using that little strategy just because I'm on a mobile device now.
As with Google Instant for Mobile, you need to be running Android 2.2 or above and iOS 4.0 or above, but who isn't these days, right? Oh right...all those poor saps imprisoned by their carriers at Android 2.1 or below. Oh well. Guess they need a new phone, right?