New Google Layout – 9 September 2010

Could this be the reason for the recent Google doodles?

Google has just unveiled a way of getting the results you want, quicker. Called ‘Google Instant’, the difference is that rather than typing search queries on the homepage and then hitting Enter (or Return if that’s what you like to call it) to bring up the results page, it starts searching as you type. Type ‘hell’ for instance, and it’ll show you the results for ‘hello magazine’ because that’s what it thinks you’re most likely to want. Of course, if you do want to find results relating to Satan’s paradise, you still press Enter to bring these up.

Why would Google want to make it quicker for us to find results?

In the extremely competitive market that internet search is, Google absolutely must keep as many Googlers as possible. It only stands a vague chance of doing this if it is the quickest, most efficient searcher on the web. And it seems to think that it is now more efficient than ever before, due to these changes: Google predict that it’ll save the average searcher two to five seconds per search.

“That may not seem like a lot at first, but it adds up. With Google Instant, we estimate that we’ll save our users 11 hours with each passing second!”

– Marissa Mayer, speaking at the launch of Google Instant

I think I like it, though it’ll take some time for me to get used to it. But generally, it’s quite nicely done.

Recent Google Interactive Doodles:

21 May 2010: The very first interactive Google Doodle, reported to have ‘gobbled up’ 4.8 million hours. You can still play, at http://www.google.com/pacman/.

Tuesday, 7 September 2010: The interactive blobs move as one moves the cursor.

Wednesday, 8 September 2010: The Google logo begins to refill to its original colours from grey as you type into the search box, character by character.