Google Instant: first thoughts

I've just been trying out Google Instant. It's amazing.

What strikes me most is how its launch this afternoon marks the start of a new way we search the internet. And there hasn't been one of them for a while. That's really significant.

What is it? Google Instant, quite simply, displays search results as you type. The more you type, the more accurate those results become. With Google guessing what you're about to type, this often means you don't have to type much at all to be given the result you want.

For, example - before, if I had wanted to look up the film 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo', I would have probably typed 'girl dragon tattoo' in a search engine and hit enter. Now, as soon as I've typed 'the girl'...the top result has already come up with the IMDB link I was after, right there on the screen. It partly works based on what's popular; if I type 'w' - results come straight up for weather forecasting sites.

We've come to expect so much from the internet and from Google - when you first use it, it seems like a pretty natural, normal, simple step. But the engineering behind it must be staggering, and it's arrival, I believe, signifies the next big step in searching the internet.

I only did a few searches with it. Then I went and did a 'conventional' search and already this feels antiquated. I believe that once people give it a go, there won't be any turning back, and with Google promising Instant for mobile devices later this year, it won't be long before everyone is using it.

Other search engines will have no choice but to try and follow suit, but with fewer resources from the get-go than the Google-giant, you wonder if this will push Google even further out in front.

Yes there will be the debates on privacy, the personal data Google need to make this work and the way in which the company is taking over our lives. That aside, I think this afternoon will mark an important change in the way we use the web.

Try it here: Google Instant