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September 8, 2010

Simon Fodden

Google's Instant Search: An Alphabet Book

As everyone connected to the real time internet is learning at this moment, Google is rolling out Instant Search. Now when you start to type, the Googleplex anticipates you in a big way, throwing up results with your very first letter — and, I should add, modifying those results as letter follows letter. This dubious benefit is not yet available on the Canadian domain, so you'll have to go to google.com to check it out.

Herewith, for your edification, an alphabet of what you get (at the top of your results)—at the moment:

A is for Amazon
B is for Best Buy
C is for Craiglist (Los Angeles)
D is for Dictionary.com
E is for eBay
F is for Facebook
G is for Gmail
H is for Hotmail
I is for Ikea
J is for JetBlue
K is for Kohl's
L is for Lowe's
M is for MapQuest
N is for Netflix
O is for Orbitz
P is for Pandora
Q is for quotes at BrainyQuote
R is for REI
S is for Sears
T is for Target
U is for US Postal Service
V is for Verizon
W is for Weather.com
X is for Xbox.com
Y is for Yahoo
Z is for Zillow

Now you're one letter away from the mainstays of the good life in America. Attaboy, Google.

Oh, did I mention that you can turn this thing off?

Simon Fodden is the founder of Slaw. He taught law at Osgoode Hall Law School for more than 30 years before he retired to focus on writing, publishing, and IT and law.
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4 Comments on “Google's Instant Search: An Alphabet Book”

  1. John Gregory says:
    September 8, 2010 at 2:49 pm

    Oh great – now Google, the (al)most popular site on the net, gets to be a source of cupertinos. For a learned and often amusing discussion of the possibiilties for these automated-text errors on cell phones, see the Language log. No doubt Google will go them several degrees better.

  2. Isabelle West says:
    September 8, 2010 at 4:34 pm

    This works for me when I use Google Canada. If I type an A, a drop down menu shows up with Air Canada as the first option and if I type a B, BMO shows up. So it does work on Google Canada but it's targeted to Canadian businesses.

  3. Simon Fodden says:
    September 8, 2010 at 5:27 pm

    Isabelle, what you're seeing isn't the new Instant Search, but rather a "suggestion" of possible searches. The instant search development actually populates the page with search results. Try the US site and you'll see.

  4. Isabelle West says:
    September 10, 2010 at 12:28 pm

    Simon, it doesn't work for me on the US site because of my browser. I clicked on the Inroducing Google Instant link and it tells me that it's not available with my browser. Apparently I need a more recent version which is why I didn't see a difference between the Canadian and US sites.

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