This is awesome news. It was always a pain to set up my search engine to have instant off - and of course instant turns back on if you performed a second search on the results page of the no-instant page.
I have never once had my search experience enhanced by this anti-feature, and most of the time it's a hindrance, because I'll start reading the search results, then based on that come up with a new query and start typing it while continuing to scan the page. In non-instant world, maybe 60% of the time I'll end up finding what I want to click on as I continue to scan the page, then stop typing and click on that (or I'll be reading the name of someone that I want to google from the except from the page). In instant world, I have to read the whole page, decide if I need to make a new query, then type it (which is the exact opposite of the intent of instant, mind you).
The worst thing about Instant was that if you started typing something that didn't have results it wanted to display (because maybe it was a NSFW-type query or because it just didn't have good results for the incomplete string), rather than leaving the old page up until it had something it wanted to show, it would just blank the old page. Horrible.
Yeah, I worked for Oyster (www.oyster.com) and had NSFW instant search issues all the time -- if I mistyped our site domain with two W's as "ww.o" the Instant Search results displayed a rather lewd image. Uh, sorry boss, that wasn't what I was after.
"...because I'll start reading the search results, then based on this come up with a new query and start typing it..."
This is a great example of how, from an ML/NLP standpoint, Instant-Search promoted confirmation-bias. If the idea is to learn how a user searches, that user should not be told how they should search.
> It was always a pain to set up my search engine to have instant off - and of course instant turns back on if you performed a second search on the results page of the no-instant page.
Hmm, is it not just a matter of turning it off? Or are you doing something more advanced than using the standard Google search page?
I would guess that the intention of the feature was not just to give users results quicker, but to also make them feel as if Google search is very fast. So it may have been effective even if you didn't click any links.
> In non-instant world, maybe 60% of the time I'll end up finding what I want to click on as I continue to scan the page, then stop typing and click on that
My problem is I look at keywords from the results and want to use them to refine my search, and as soon as I type the first letter of my refinement, I lose access to the words I need.
And as you say, results on half words have never helped anyone, and there are already suggestions for what these half words might expand to.
> It was always a pain to set up my search engine to have instant off - and of course instant turns back on if you performed a second search on the results page
If you have an account it stays off? I always hated instant and disabled it, and never had to disable it again...?
Instant is great for atypical searches: when doing conversions or using Google as a calculator, then instant-search would give the result in the suggestion.
Looks like I'm in the minority here, but I really liked instant. I remember turning in instant from the omnibox in chrome, too. It showed that Google was at least willing to innovate in the search space -- and for some of us, it was a huge positive to have.
Yeah, I usually will start my Google searches in the Omnibox, then use the search bar on the page when I needed to find something new. In those use cases, instant is incredibly useful.
I really liked instant too, except I just liked it for the keyboard shortcuts. After submitting a query, I could press <tab> then use the up/down arrows to select, then <cmd>+<enter> to open the links in a new tab.
Does anyone know of Google search keyboard shortcuts even without instant?
I also liked search quite a bit. I was very impressed with the fantastic engineering and the overall UX. But I guess I won't miss the feature big time.
This was a marketing feature more than anything else so google could boast about how fast their search engine was. However, it always had tons of usability problems for no added benefit to the user, especially when refining a previous search, or trying to retype some funky word you found in the results.
I rather liked Instant Search but it dawns on me that I hadn't noticed it's absence as I never go to the Google homepage any more. Searching from the address bar is all I ever do - and that doesn't seem to have changed.
This was such a disruptive feature. Completely distracting from the moment you interact with the page. This wasn't a productivity bonus in any way, regardless of purported reading recognition rates and eye tracking/movement measurements.
No, computer. You wait until I'm finished. You wait until I tell you I want you to do something. You don't jump at every flinch of my fingers. Not all interactions require reaction.
Now if only they would stop swapping Images, News, and Shopping link around based on my search. I want a picture of whatever I searched for, that's why I clicked the button next to 'All' like I have a thousand times before - don't reorder your damn links from page to page!
The most annoying part is still there -- of the home page morphing into the search results page as soon as text is typed. It is a totally nonsensical design.
1) Type stuff into google.com
2) Delete all the text
You are now on a totally empty results page. Why is this a sensible design?
On top of that it's a constant perplexing hindrance for Luddites like myself who insist upon using the backspace key to navigate back a page, instead leaving me wondering why my search results page is refreshing instead.
Do people frequently use the Google Homepage for search? I've always just used the address / search bar via Ctrl+K shortcuts for instant searching. Why waste time going to google.com directly?
I hated the "instantness" of Instant Search but loved the keyboard shortcuts which seem to have disappeared. I used TAB and the arrow keys to select a search result and Ctrl+Enter to open the result in a new tab.
It is very, very sad that it is no longer possible to use those.
Yes to me it is insane that Google doesn't provide native keyboard shortcuts (at least make it an option) for the search results page. It is available on Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, etc. Why not Google search??
I completely hated how as I was typing I would change my mind and decide maybe I did want to click on a link only to see it instantly disappear. Then the back-button didn't work as expected, so I just ended up having to re-type my query.
Especially annoying when testing multiple queries to find the optimal one and you decided that a query of 3 submissions ago was the most effective and you couldn't remember it precisely.
I loved this feature! This makes me sad. It really shouldn't be a big deal to let people enable it for their own accounts or to just disable it for mobile. I don't see the benefit of just getting rid of it completely.
This feature has been the bane of my Google existence. I often want to hit backspace to go back a page, but because their search bar steals my focus, I instead remove a letter or two and perform a search again.
I have never, not once, found this feature to be useful. Who doesn't type faster than they can read a page of results?
Would have been before, too, if you had JavaScript disabled, wouldn't it?
But yeah, that is interesting. They supposedly lose/lost a lot of money from that button, as it skips past their ads.
Also, they are supposedly redesigning the Google Homepage [0], moving away from having just the search field there to having a news feed, the weather and some such there as well.
So, maybe this change is in anticipation of that and maybe they'll also tuck some ads into there then, to actually monetize the time people spend on their homepage.
Instant search was one of the reasons I moved to DuckDuckGo. Google could learn a lot from DDG. There's so many actually usefull features on the results page that now I feel lost when I'm using Google.
Yes, this feature had negative value for me. A common use case is that I'm copying keywords from search result snippets back into the search bar to make a more refined followup search, and Instant Search snatches the result away while I'm trying to copy text from it.
Does anybody really look at the Google home page any more? Browsers and mobile devices all have search boxes now. Bing tried putting good artwork on their home page, and nobody noticed.
Google's "robots.txt" file doesn't let bots read their home page. Most other pages on Google are bot-readable, but not the home page. It's like they don't want it to be indexed by other search engines. That might change once it gets content.
I had Instant Search on for just one reason: movement with arrow keys. Since they killed it's bothering me, I hope they bring at least this option back. If not does anyone else has a solution?
That feature has never worked with Instant Search disabled. I've had to go into search settings and re-enable Instant Search several times now just to get that feature back. Looks like it's gone for good now though.
I think this feature might have helped people who are slow at typing.
May be off-topic, but I remember an incidence from Home Depot when I asked a staff member to look something up for me. She pulled up a browser (think it was IE), typed google in the nav bar (perhaps to get to google.com) and got the bing search result for search term 'google'. Then she continued on to use the bing search to look for Home Depot's site (I assume she was thinking she is searching on Google).
I didn't get what I was looking for, but I did leave wondering about use-case or user interaction scenarios like this that I would have never thought of.
Yeah, I think that Instant Search must have had its value for people, even if not much for me.
Auto complete is already an awesome feature to have, instant search is clutter, it creates too much traffic, and sometimes it doesn't work (nothing shows for a while).
Now it would be nice if google would stop choosing french as a search language because I live there, I have to set it up everyday and I don't want to enable cookies... I don't know if I can access google with english as default in some special page.
[+] [-] x1798DE|8 years ago|reply
I have never once had my search experience enhanced by this anti-feature, and most of the time it's a hindrance, because I'll start reading the search results, then based on that come up with a new query and start typing it while continuing to scan the page. In non-instant world, maybe 60% of the time I'll end up finding what I want to click on as I continue to scan the page, then stop typing and click on that (or I'll be reading the name of someone that I want to google from the except from the page). In instant world, I have to read the whole page, decide if I need to make a new query, then type it (which is the exact opposite of the intent of instant, mind you).
The worst thing about Instant was that if you started typing something that didn't have results it wanted to display (because maybe it was a NSFW-type query or because it just didn't have good results for the incomplete string), rather than leaving the old page up until it had something it wanted to show, it would just blank the old page. Horrible.
[+] [-] benhoyt|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rotrux|8 years ago|reply
This is a great example of how, from an ML/NLP standpoint, Instant-Search promoted confirmation-bias. If the idea is to learn how a user searches, that user should not be told how they should search.
[+] [-] Bromskloss|8 years ago|reply
Hmm, is it not just a matter of turning it off? Or are you doing something more advanced than using the standard Google search page?
[+] [-] brndn|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wodenokoto|8 years ago|reply
My problem is I look at keywords from the results and want to use them to refine my search, and as soon as I type the first letter of my refinement, I lose access to the words I need.
And as you say, results on half words have never helped anyone, and there are already suggestions for what these half words might expand to.
[+] [-] bambax|8 years ago|reply
If you have an account it stays off? I always hated instant and disabled it, and never had to disable it again...?
[+] [-] zmix|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Shank|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] swampthinker|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] c5sc63z2|8 years ago|reply
Does anyone know of Google search keyboard shortcuts even without instant?
[+] [-] raybb|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sidcool|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Coincoin|8 years ago|reply
This was a marketing feature more than anything else so google could boast about how fast their search engine was. However, it always had tons of usability problems for no added benefit to the user, especially when refining a previous search, or trying to retype some funky word you found in the results.
[+] [-] puzzle|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] andybak|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pavement|8 years ago|reply
This was such a disruptive feature. Completely distracting from the moment you interact with the page. This wasn't a productivity bonus in any way, regardless of purported reading recognition rates and eye tracking/movement measurements.
No, computer. You wait until I'm finished. You wait until I tell you I want you to do something. You don't jump at every flinch of my fingers. Not all interactions require reaction.
[+] [-] Bartweiss|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] user5994461|8 years ago|reply
A: "We could save hundreds of millions in hardware resources if we disabled instant search."
B: "But we might lose money if we don't show as many ads. OH WAIT..."
The guy did a search and realized that the suggestion menu overlaps on the top of the page, where the ads are displayed.
He then tried to click the ad and he couldn't because the ad results changed the moment he moved his cursor away from the search bar.
It took them 7 years to realize their mistake!
[+] [-] unclesaamm|8 years ago|reply
1) Type stuff into google.com 2) Delete all the text
You are now on a totally empty results page. Why is this a sensible design?
[+] [-] detritus|8 years ago|reply
Every. Single. Time.
I know, I know, it's my fault. But it's not.
[+] [-] beambot|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|8 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] trvr|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bbotond|8 years ago|reply
It is very, very sad that it is no longer possible to use those.
[+] [-] alexman|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bdamm|8 years ago|reply
It is awesome. I love it. Speed boost.
[+] [-] craigc|8 years ago|reply
You can press j to scan forward one result and k to scan backwards and enter or command enter to jump to a result
It works on a bunch of other sites too like hacker news and reddit!
I am NOT the author
[+] [-] aylmao|8 years ago|reply
I completely hated how as I was typing I would change my mind and decide maybe I did want to click on a link only to see it instantly disappear. Then the back-button didn't work as expected, so I just ended up having to re-type my query.
Every time.
[+] [-] MrBra|8 years ago|reply
Especially annoying when testing multiple queries to find the optimal one and you decided that a query of 3 submissions ago was the most effective and you couldn't remember it precisely.
[+] [-] Chloro|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] EpicEng|8 years ago|reply
This feature has been the bane of my Google existence. I often want to hit backspace to go back a page, but because their search bar steals my focus, I instead remove a letter or two and perform a search again.
I have never, not once, found this feature to be useful. Who doesn't type faster than they can read a page of results?
[+] [-] bonaldi|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Sylos|8 years ago|reply
But yeah, that is interesting. They supposedly lose/lost a lot of money from that button, as it skips past their ads.
Also, they are supposedly redesigning the Google Homepage [0], moving away from having just the search field there to having a news feed, the weather and some such there as well.
So, maybe this change is in anticipation of that and maybe they'll also tuck some ads into there then, to actually monetize the time people spend on their homepage.
[0]: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jul/20/google-ch...
[+] [-] Anarch157a|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] alexkavon|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] waqf|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|8 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] Animats|8 years ago|reply
Google's "robots.txt" file doesn't let bots read their home page. Most other pages on Google are bot-readable, but not the home page. It's like they don't want it to be indexed by other search engines. That might change once it gets content.
[+] [-] odammit|8 years ago|reply
I thought it was funny because they touted how relevant their search results were then blasted you with seemingly random pictures.
[+] [-] Theodores|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] alien1993|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] czardoz|8 years ago|reply
Was this removed as well? :-/
[+] [-] Ajedi32|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pbhjpbhj|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] manigandham|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] surds|8 years ago|reply
May be off-topic, but I remember an incidence from Home Depot when I asked a staff member to look something up for me. She pulled up a browser (think it was IE), typed google in the nav bar (perhaps to get to google.com) and got the bing search result for search term 'google'. Then she continued on to use the bing search to look for Home Depot's site (I assume she was thinking she is searching on Google).
I didn't get what I was looking for, but I did leave wondering about use-case or user interaction scenarios like this that I would have never thought of.
Yeah, I think that Instant Search must have had its value for people, even if not much for me.
[+] [-] pishpash|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jokoon|8 years ago|reply
Now it would be nice if google would stop choosing french as a search language because I live there, I have to set it up everyday and I don't want to enable cookies... I don't know if I can access google with english as default in some special page.