Google function takes the clicking out of searching

Google’s newly enhanced search function seems to be doing double duty as a mind reader.

The Google Instant, which launched Wednesday, can predict users’ search queries faster than they can type them out. Suggested pages will begin popping up on screen with a user’s first keystroke, with results updating as more letters are added to the word or phrase being searched.

Previously, Google would propose search terms in a drop-down menu as users typed, without revealing the actual results until the “enter” key was pressed or the “search” button was clicked.

But now, according to a presentation Wednesday at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, users don’t have to click on anything to search. Instead, they can scan results as soon as they start typing while refining their search by scrolling down the suggested selections in the drop-down menu or continuing to plug in letters.

Inputting a “w” into the search box, for example, will cause the weather forecast and a list of weather-related sites to pop up on the page. The typed “w” shows up black, but the rest of the word “weather” is automatically completed in gray. In a drop-down menu just below the search box, “walmart,” “wells fargo” and “wikipedia” are given as other possibilities.

Although the traditional search button may soon fall into disuse, users can still click on it to search the exact text they typed, instead of what Google expects them to type.

Google Instant is a “quantum leap forward in search,” said Marissa Mayer, Google Inc.’s vice president of search product and user experience. The function will shave about two to five seconds off the standard 25-second search but can be disabled by users.

Such predictive capabilities were once thought to be so improbable that the concept was featured on Google’s main page as an April Fools joke in 2000.

Google Instant began appearing on the Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer 8 browsers in the U.S. on Wednesday. The function will be rolled out internationally to Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Spain and Russia over the next week.

Engineers are also working on adapting Google Instant to mobile settings, expected to be available this fall.

Google watchers were whipped into a state of fervid anticipation this week as the company teased the announcement by toying with its logo on its main Web page. On Tuesday, the logo burst into animated bubbles that moved along with the cursor. Users on Wednesday saw a gray outline of the logo that filled up with the signature blue, green, red and yellow colors as they typed in search terms.

Google Instant could prompt searchers to click on more online ads, generating more revenue for Google, said David Hallerman, senior analyst at research firm EMarketer Inc. Advertisers, meanwhile, will have to learn how to boost their profiles on result pages even more to attract attention.

“With all the other services that Google works on, searching is still by far their central means of making money,” he said. “Anything that makes searching easier and more effective will help increase usage for Google and allow it to keep its place at the top of the heap.”

tiffany.hsu@latimes.com