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Googling Google

Christopher Dawson

Google Streaming Search will change how we search

By | August 24, 2010, 12:02am PDT

It looks like some users are seeing a new experimental feature Google is working on that people are calling “Streaming Search”. This is different from the real-time suggested search terms when you are typing in the search box — what we’re seeing is real results changing as you type.

You can watch the video recorded by a lucky user that has been randomly selected to try out the new feature here. This is a feature that I can see lots of people liking — instant feedback as you type. This is especially interesting when you are talking about mobile searches where typing can be a pain for some people.

It’s kind of annoying that the original “Google Suggest” kind of blocks the most important search result (the first one), but overall, I think having this type of real-time query builder of sorts is going to be extremely helpful when searches are being performed. Instant feedback about your query is given to you, and that allows you to correct it rapidly to make sure you get exactly the results you want. If it’s rolled out widely, I could certainly see how this is going to change how we search.

What do you think of this new feature?

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Garett Rogers has always had a deep interest in computers and the Internet, which led him to a degree in Computer Information Systems. He is currently employed as a programmer for iQmetrix.

Disclosure

Garett Rogers

Garett Rogers is employed as a programmer for iQmetrix, which specializes in retail management software for the wireless industry. He has no other formal associations with any software or hardware companies.

Biography

Garett Rogers

Garett Rogers has always had a deep interest in computers and the Internet, which led him to a degree in Computer Information Systems. He is currently employed as a programmer for iQmetrix, which specializes in retail management software designed specifically for the cellular and electronics industry.

Garett's journey into Google started with his employer asking him to "get a better rank on Google." Diving into search engine optimization sparked his curiosity for how things work and led him to create a blog dedicated to what interests him most--Google.

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RE: Google Streaming Search will change how we search
adli89@... 28th Aug 2010
@gregg@... And you think that once a company fails at one thing, it will continue to fail in all its future innovations? The whole concept of this streaming search is good since if you can find what you want by typing only the first word, you don't need to continue typing your query.
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and Privacy?
Fattore Zero 24th Aug 2010
we think that these new features really protect our privacy?
check out: digger-news.blogspot.com
The Suggest dropdown doesn't overlap the first result; in the new version, the organic results are pushed down below the suggestion box.
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Flicker as your type
guihombre 24th Aug 2010
[Strawberry Cheesecake Recipe]
Great, now all I have to do is sort my query so the first word I type is the primary selector and not say

[Orange center hotels france]
Where I'll learn all sorts of things about Orange the telco, their call centers, the hotels of Orange Disney Florida, and so on.

In auto complete, they offer several alternatives, how about instead of this, if the user presses the down arrow and steps through those alternatives, they update the browser as they cursor down. That way the user isn't distracted by flickering as they type, but still gets to see at a glance the refined results?
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Looks good. Say goodbye to Search Metrics! this will either boost the amount of searches made (almost one search for every new letter typed in) or will made them null (Enter is never pressed or "search" is never pressed)
Why does every idea Google concocts always hailed as a great idea? Let's not forget that this idea is from the same company that thought wave would replace nearly all forms of online communications.

This is an unbelievably bad idea for people like me who know how to type-in search terms, including complex operators, so that I end-up with exactly what I want to see after the very first click of the "Search" button. As I'm typing such complex search terms, I don't want to see a bunch of stuff I don't care about flashing on the screen beneath.

This is analogous to beginning to answer a person's ten-word question after hearing just the first word, then changing the answer based on the first and second word once the second word is uttered, and so on. Imagine communicating with someone that way verbally. We all know or have encountered someone in our lives who tries to answer questions before they've even been fully articulated, and it makes us interrupt ourselves and say, "excuse me... may I please finish?"

Why would it be any less annoying while we're typing?

When WAVE first came out, I was a nearly lone voice in saying that it was just a monumentally bad idea that would not catch on. One year leater, I was proved dead right when Google announced the end of further development on WAVE.

Streaming search is an equally monumentally bad idea... mark my words. It is not the way to search... or do any OTHER kind of typed communications, either.

Mark my words.


_____________________________________________
Gregg L. DesElms
Napa, California, USA
gregg at greggdeselms dot com
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@gregg@... And you think that once a company fails at one thing, it will continue to fail in all its future innovations? The whole concept of this streaming search is good since if you can find what you want by typing only the first word, you don't need to continue typing your query.
MacHangout.com's Glims plugin for Safari on Mac OS has a similar capability but shows the live results directly beneath that browser's built-in search field in a much more compact fashion. Like Google's method, it also shows suggestions as I type.

I've used Glims for months and it certainly has not only sped up my searches but enhanced my browser experience with the myriad features it adds to Safari.

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