Google introduced it’s Google Instant in the year 2010 under the leadership of Merissa Meyer, Meyer called this feature of Google as “Fundamental shift in search” and claimed that With Google Instant, each search could take 2 to 5 seconds less time. If everyone on the planet used Google Instant for their searches, she said, it would save about 3.5 billion seconds a day, or 11 hours saved every second.
Google Instant enabled it’s users to Get Search results instantly as you type in the Search bar. Google Instant was widely accepted by users and some other websites like Youtube as well. This feature was available on Google Website for Desktops.
Google used this Instant technology for almost 7 years, but as the technology is changing, users are performing more searches from mobile devices than from Desktop browsers, over 50% of Google searches are being performed from Mobile devices which have different input and interaction and screen constraints. And to bring unified search experience across all the platforms, Google silently retired its Instant feature.
How is it gonna affect you?
Now if you try to make a search on Google website using your desktop browser, you would notice that its showing your matching predictions in the dropdown but the results aren’t appearing as your type. You need to look for the valid suggestion and select it or hit enter while focusing over it using Keyboard and then the query search is performed.
Cover-image credits: Wired
