Prepare for Google Instant as they think local and work global

Google’s latest innovation, Google Instant, is being rolled out in the UK and other selected regions (including the US) and will soon be standard across the world within a few months.

Google is describing its  Google Instant as  a “fundamental shift in search” and  looks likely to have an impact on electronic marketing strategy. With Google now achieving 1 billion unique users on their site every week, any change to Google search is something worth watching very closely.

Google say

"Google Instant is a new search enhancement that shows results as you type. We are pushing the limits of our technology and infrastructure to help you get better search results, faster. Our key technical insight was that people type slowly, but read quickly, typically taking 300 milliseconds between keystrokes, but only 30 milliseconds (a tenth of the time!) to glance at another part of the page. This means that you can scan a results page while you type.

The most obvious change is that you get to the right content much faster than before because you don’t have to finish typing your full search term, or even press “search.” Another shift is that seeing results as you type helps you formulate a better search term by providing instant feedback. You can now adapt your search on the fly until the results match exactly what you want. In time, we may wonder how search ever worked in any other way.

Benefits

Faster Searches: By predicting your search and showing results before you finish typing, Google Instant can save 2-5 seconds per search.

Smarter Predictions: Even when you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, predictions help guide your search. The top prediction is shown in grey text directly in the search box, so you can stop typing as soon as you see what you need.

Instant Results: Start typing and results appear right before your eyes. Until now, you had to type a full search term, hit return, and hope for the right results. Now results appear instantly as you type, helping you see where you’re headed, every step of the way."

Eye-tracking studies of users shown by Google at the launch seem to indicate that as the user starts to type their search term, their eyes are drawn to the constantly changing search results just below the search box and not to the advertising shown in the right hand panel. This may have a number of implications for marketing.

Firstly, the tendency not to look at AdWords on the page, combined with a much faster search time leading users quickly away from the search results page, may limit the effectiveness of AdWords as a marketing tool. Those using AdWords as a major component of their web marketing strategy may want to look closely at this approach over the next few months.

Secondly, the user’s focus on the first few results may be exacerbated. If users see relevant results before they get a chance to complete their entire search then they may be more likely to ignore, or perhaps never even consider, those search results which are outside the top three. They may also be more likely to click on the paid ads underneath the search box. Advertisers may see an increase in click-throughs and, hence, costs for these sorts of advertisements.

Thirdly, the suggestions for the search query made by Google now push the actual search results further down the page, meaning that, for 50% of users, anything below the fourth result will be "below the fold", requiring them to scroll to see them.

Google Instant helps users find information faster by showing relevant results as a query is typed. As users get this immediate feedback, they're able to refine their searches more quickly and find the results that more precisely match what they need. As a result, we expect increased user engagement with our search services, including ads.

How it works

As a user starts to type a search, Google Instant automatically shows results for a popular search that begins with those letters. An algorithm tries to predict what the rest of the query might be based on popular queries typed by other users. The predicted text is shown in light grey in the search box, and search results and ads are automatically shown for that predicted query.

What changes

New predicted query

Although Google Instant won't change the way ads are served, ads and search results will now be shown for a new "predicted query". For example, if someone types "flow" into Google, an algorithm predicts that the user is searching for "flowers" (the predicted query) and therefore displays search listings and ads for flowers. Those results will continue to show unless the next letters that the user types lead to a different predicted query.

How impressions are counted

When someone searches using Google Instant, ad impressions are counted in these situations:

• The user begins to type a query on Google and clicks anywhere on the page (a search result, an ad, a spell correction, a related search).
• The user chooses a particular query by clicking the Search button, pressing Enter or selecting one of the predicted queries.
• The user stops typing, and the results are displayed for a minimum of 3 seconds.

We recommend monitoring your ads' performance the same way you usually do. Google Instant might increase or decrease your overall impression levels. However, Google Instant can improve the quality of your clicks since it helps people search using terms that more directly connect them with the answers they need. Therefore, your overall campaign performance could improve.

http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en-uk&answer=187309