The power of Google Instant, now in your pocket

Thursday, November 4, 2010 | 1:01 PM

(Cross-posted on the Official Google Blog.)

Google Instant makes search faster by displaying not just predictions but actual search results as you type. This saves valuable time on a desktop browser, but wouldn’t it be great to have Google Instant on mobile devices, where each keystroke and page load is much slower and you frequently have just a moment to find the information you need?

In September we announced that we were working to bring Google Instant to mobile, and today we’re making a beta version available to most iPhone and Android devices in the U.S. To try it out, go to google.com in your phone’s browser and tap the Google Instant “Turn on” link beneath the search box (if you don’t see the “Turn on” link, try waiting a moment and then refresh the page).

Like the desktop version of Google Instant, when you type on your mobile device you’ll see predictions of what you might be searching for. If you type [anse], for example, you should see [ansel adams] along with other predictions. Results for the first prediction appear automatically, and tapping on the other predictions will display those results. Pressing the enter key or the search button skips the predictions and will display results for exactly what you’ve typed. Check out our demo video:



With Google Instant on mobile, we’re pushing the limits of mobile browsers and wireless networks. You will probably notice a big improvement in speed when you search thanks to a new AJAX and HTML5 implementation for mobile that dynamically updates the page with new results and eliminates the need to load a new page for each query.

Google Instant for mobile works best on 3G and WiFi networks, but since the quality of any wireless connection can fluctuate, we’ve made it easy to enable or disable Google Instant without ever leaving the page. Just tap the “Turn on” or “Turn off” link.

We hope you’ll enjoy using Google Instant for mobile as much as we enjoyed making it. It’s currently available for Android 2.2 (“Froyo”) devices and iPhones and iPods running iOS 4 in the U.S. in English. We’re working to support additional countries and languages and more devices in the coming months, so stay tuned.

10 comments:

Unknown said...

So... Google considers 36.2 % of Android devices (Froyo) "most Android devices"? ;)

ALIENDUDE5300 said...

I'd love to see this functionality come to my Epic 4G sometime soon...

Andy Hibberd said...

What? So you get to see the FIRST result of your search cos the screen is a few inches big? Smartphones were not made for Google Instant. Stop this Google. Stop it.

Unknown said...

Should I even ask if this will work with Swype? Nice idea, but best with keyboards...

Unknown said...

Droid X user here, after poking around for a few minutes my thoughts;

* With Swype(which is what I use 90% of the time) the word won't pop up until you're finishing swyping, so kinda no point there

* Only two results show up holding the phone upright, zero holding it on the side. On screen keyboard takes up about 1/3rd of the screen and google is not making good use of the remaining 2/3rd

* Search is loading notably faster! Search loaded pretty fast before, but this halfed the time.

RSharma said...

good deal!!

clarkec123 said...

Pointless.

1) The on-screen keyboard hides the 'Instant' results so you have to complete your search term anyway

2) Google Suggest causes an annoying fraction of a delay (only tested iPhone) and Google Instant makes this delay even more annoying

3) Download Caps - Most plans have a limited amount of data, so loading several pages as you type the word and results gets more refined with each letter will only cause more bandwidth to be consumed. In the UK download caps have been cut drastically and this tech will only consume the paltry allowance sooner.

Eliot the Cougar said...

Now you add Instant to mobile browsers and STILL NO Opera desktop browser support, even though Google Instant works perfectly if you replace UserAgent string...

Unknown said...

Hi Steve, I am writing from the Republic of Panama. I'd tryied to set my blackberry with Google mobile application, but my country name is not available in the list of country you had. What can I do, so I can be able to set my blackberry to use Google on it. Pls advise. My e-mail: wallywallstreetny@gmail.com

Web Development Company said...

Not so exiting :(
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