Okay, the results of my study of one (me) are in and it’s official: as a search engine user, I love Google Instant. I love the way it generates results that I can quickly scan whilst still completing my search queries. Actually, I love the way it completes my search queries.

Which begs the question: is Google Instant just plain useful… or am I just plain lazy?

With the advent of Google Instant I no longer type in as many words into the Google search field as I used to. I don’t even click the ‘search’ button as much as I used to. At the same time, I find myself more satisfied with the search results Google is delivering.

Indeed, my overall Google Instant experience – where Google both suggests search terms and generates results on the fly – is that I’m finding what I’m looking for, faster.

I guess some people will disagree, and others may regard Google Instant as aggravating (which is fine, since you can switch it off), but I wonder if others are also more satisfied with their Google search experience?

I still have some reservations about Google (which is why I also use DuckDuckGo and Bing) but while Google Instant may not be the kind of ‘killer’ feature that leads people to switch TO Google, it’s certainly the kind of ‘stick’ feature that deters people like me from switching AWAY from Google to other search engines.

Of course, this is the kind of product innovation you’d expect from a dominant market leader: a feature designed to maintain market share. It’s also the kind that leads market leaders to be vulnerable when confronted by disruptive technologies. Fortunately for Google, the company seems to be investing in both maintaining its current business and expanding into other businesses (driver-less cars, anyone?)

Incidentally, for all my original concerns about whether Google Instant would impact search engine rankings and traffic, we haven’t noticed any affect on our websites so far…

Related Articles:

• Google Maintains Search Engine Dominance in October 2010
• Google Instant Won’t Change Rankings, But Will Increase Traffic To #1 Ranked Sites (and Hurt Everyone Else)
• Google Admits MayDay Search Engine Algorithm Change
• Google Accounts For 65 Percent of U.S. Search
• No Change In U.S. Search Engine Market

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 4th, 2010 at 8:39 am and is filed under Feature, Search Marketing, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.