We’re live inside the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Click read more for up-to-the-minute coverage of Google’s next major search innovation.
10:48 AM Q&A is running long, and slowing down… we’re heading out of here. Thanks for tuning in, and stay tuned later today for hand-on Google Instant for Mobile photos.
10:45 AM Worst question comes from Wired Italy: “Do you think people want faster search?” Google: “Yes.”
10:43 AM Google doesn’t expect ranking to change. Google search rarely relies on search query rates, considers it a longer-term effect than any immediate SERP changes.
10:38 AM Blacklisted words are also content controlled on Google Instant, to avoid for any mistaken entries.
10:36 AM Google admits that this is a “learning experience” for some of the issues with AdWords calculations, but they do not expect a significant change in CPC cost or spark any major ad market changes.
10:34 AM In-browser search bar integration “in the coming months”. AdWords treatment, counting impressions is now a dynamic change. A three second pause determines if an ad is counted as an impression, or click in the search query.
10:32 AM And, as the hours count up to 37,000 Bob Dylan music is playing, with Google running Google Instant searches running in the background of the lyrics.
10:31 AM Marissa Mayer is back on stage, wrapping up and reviewing. Counters are actually running the “hours saved” in Google Instant use. Ed: This sounds eerily familiar to Jobs Saved….
10:26 AM Team reached over 100 employees at the time of deployment. Wrapping up with thanks to the team, Q&A imminent.
10:23 AM As alluded to earlier, the largest challenge was cutting down on the impact of dynamic searches. The initial prototype required each keypress to generate a new Google search, with prioritization and caching user state. For example, the web browser caches searches now inside of the AJAX session.
10:22 AM Google has us here, so there intent on bringing you to the point of falling asleep in talking about how much they focus on search. JavaScript issues, issue tracking, IP connection dropouts all on the list of issues they encountered.
10:18 AM Search methodology was improved using eye tracking in test environments. Google measured where people were looking as they typed in web searches.
10:16 AM Google Instant uses the notion of constant re-searching under the hood. As you type each letter, it’s basically running a new Google search. After several prototypes, this resource drain was cut down by feeding in auto completion and caching results based on the combination of dynamic entries and Google Suggest results.
10:15 AM The two screens that aren’t in use have been running a counter, which we suspect is the number of questions that have been submitted to the email address we pointed to at the start. It’s up to 26,000 and counting.
10:14 AM Ben Gomes takes the stage to talk about engineering challenges Google ran into with developing Google Instant.
10:13 AM Video montage of Google trusted testers who have been using Google Instant.
10:12 AM Demo is being run on a Motorola Droid, works just about as fast. Available later this Fall.
10:11 AM Demo: Upcoming Google Instant for Mobile.
10:10 AM Announcement is being run on Mac OS X, gone are the days of Windows demos from Google. Google earlier this year committed to removing Windows from the workplace as much as prudently possible, and it shows.
10:08 AM One last demo… previous demos have been pretty boring. It’s hard to stretch out something that’s insanely great, but insanely simplistic.
10:05 AM Shortcuts are pretty much what you’d expect. Tab completes the search in the field, so you can expand on what Google predicts you want. Arrow keys scroll through the cached results, as does scrolling. Scrolling also updates the results in real time as you scroll over them.
10:04 AM When you use Google Instant for the first time, you get a notice “Feelings of euphoria and weightlessness are normal. Do not be alarmed.”
10:02 AM Google Instant is live in the hall, though we got it up using Google’s proxied Wi-Fi hotspots. May not be available for everyone outside the firewall just yet.
10:01 AM Typing w gives you instant weather for your location. Got a rare round of applause from a mostly-press crowd.
9:59 AM Johanna Wright, Othar Hansson of the Search team take the stage to explain the technicals behind Google Instant.
9:58 AM You must be signed in with a Google Account to use Google Instant. Estimate saving average of 2-5 seconds per query, which adds up. Google claims 11 hours of search time saved each second, when Google Instant is used worldwide.
9:57 AM Rolling out through today. Available on Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Internet Explorer 8. UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, and Russia through this week.
9:56 AM History: Google 10 years ago made predictive searching their April Fools joke.
9:55 AM Keyboard shortcuts allow for even faster toggling through Google Instant. Google cites that this is easier, and once you get the hang of it, even faster. With cached search results, even someone that doesn’t know the results… it’s still a significant improvement.
9:54 AM Results are based on the most likely query that Google predicts you will type. Google Suggest allows you to toggle related queries, which are also cached into your browser instantly.
9:52 AM As queries are entered, results appear instantly, not just the Google Suggest results that are displayed.
9:51 AM Google wants to make it easier to improve entering queries, with Google Instant.
9:49 AM Google search time and optimization detailed. Going over what Google has done to improve search speeds.
9:48 AM Touting Google’s real time search qualities of today.
9:47 AM Following the evolution of research and technology. Speed of research evolving from books, to telephone, to computers and multimedia, to internet.
9:45 AM “A Fundamental Shift” for Search will be announced today. Cites that people are switching how they think towards web search.
9:44 AM Playing back Super Bowl TV ad, bubble garden from yesterday.
9:43 AM The 2010 debriefing continues with Questions & Answers and Stars in Search, and UI redesign.
9:41 AM Debriefing Caffeine index and Real-time Search, and Spelling Corrections.
9:40 AM Marissa Mayer, VP of Search Products & User Experience takes the stage. Debriefs existing Google search goals. 1 Billion users each week on google.com.
9:37 AM You can email questions and have them answered live. search2010@google.com
9:36 AM PR housekeeping mostly. Pre-start stuff.
9:33 AM Google may be running into last minute issues. We’re still standing by.
9:31 AM Google logo fly through has begun. Stand by.
9:29 AM And, the screen turns to the Google logo.
9:26 AM Google has a great screen saver running here. We want it. Photos don’t do it justice.
9:24 AM We’re getting better connectivity than the Google employees (as usual).
9:20 AM We’re calling MiFi a winner in the Epic 4G vs MiFi signal tests. MiFi is blazing past Epic 4G in terms of 3G slinging.
9:05 AM And… we’re going dark for the next 20 minutes or so… check back then.
9:03 AM We have cameras on-site but we’re not sure how bandwidth will hold up in the keynote hall (lots of Android devices around, and that CDMA breathing effect can happen). Regardless, we’ll have photos afterwords if there’s anything groundbreaking to show.
9:01 AM The keynote is expected to begin at 9:30 AM. Start reloading this page around that time.
This is exciting!
Worst live coverage ever!
Troll.