Google Instant Previews Increases ‘Probability’ of User Satisfaction By 5 Percent
By Anna Johnson on November 9th, 2010Google has just released Instant Previews, which allows you to see a graphical preview of the web pages corresponding to Google’s search results.
According to Google, users of Instant Previews are 5 percent more likely to be satisfied with the search results they click than people who don’t use the technology. This begs the question: what’s the value of a 5 percent increase in the likelihood that users will be satisfied with their Google search experience?
Google began rolling out Instant Previews on Tuesday, and expects it to be universally available within a few days.
Instant Previews works by displaying a magnifying glass beside the title of Google’s search results. When you click on the magnifying glass, a visual overview of the page appears on the right. You can then hover your cursor over any other search result to see a preview of the corresponding page. Alternatively you can use the right arrow key on your keyboard to see previews, or hit the down arrow key to keep browsing the search results.
It makes sense that search engine users who use Instant Previews are more likely to be satisfied with the results they click than non-users.
Being able to preview a given web page arms you with more information about whether or not the page will give you what you’re looking for online. In other words, because you’ll be better informed when clicking on results you’ve been able to preview, you’ll be more likely to click on relevant results, and therefore be more satisfied with those results.
So, from Google’s perspective, how much is a 5 percent increase in the probability of its users being satisfied with their search results worth?
For now, it’s probably worth a lot.
As in the case of Google Instant, Google seems to be making relatively small, yet significant, improvements in its search technology in order to maintain its search engine dominance. At least until it – or a competitor – comes up with a breakthrough that changes the game.
Of course, you may ask why it took Google so long to offer visual previews of search results. The
blog post by Google Product Manager, Raj Krishnan, indicates that Google only wanted to launch Instant Previews when it was confident it could deliver previews ‘lightning fast’.
Source: Raj Krishnan, “Beyond Instant results: Instant Previews,” Official Google Blog, November 9, 2010
