GOOGLE Instant, Disruptive Technology?
Oct 19th, 2010 | By Gene A. Wright | Category: General, Information Technology, Innovation, Technology, Technology StrategyFrom the web page at Google “Google Instant is a new search enhancement that shows results as you type. We are pushing the limits of our technology and infrastructure to help you get better search results, faster. Our key technical insight was that people type slowly, but read quickly, typically taking 300 milliseconds between keystrokes, but only 30 milliseconds (a tenth of the time!) to glance at another part of the page. This means that you can scan a results page while you type.”
Is this a disruptive technology? Will it be? Why or Why not? What made you think the way you do?
I find this very difficult to use. It wouldn’t be so bad if the text you are typing didn’t jump around once the instant search finds something. The instant list of possible items in the dropdown, now that’s another story…
I think this new search style from Google is not a disruptive technology. I think it is a very cool feature & I enjoy using it. It makes searching much easier but it doesn’t change the searching game, a search is still a search. I find it most valuable when I am not sure exactly how to spell what I am looking for.
I don’t see this as a disruptive technology. I see this as an incremental improvement to an existing design. What Gene Wright would refer to as the “ER” Bigger, Faster, Better. I agree with the above post on the drop down menu. Not sure if Googles new improvement will really solve a customer problems with this solution.
I think that Google Instant is a sustaining technology – not disruptive. The ability to type and scan at the same time is convenient, but I do not foresee it as changing the market. Instead, I think that this is a general – market sustaining – innovation that will keep Google at the head of the market. This is an ability that other technologies have enabled. Everyone expects everything fast and instant, Google is just ramping up their current competencies to meet the customer demand. I clicked on the trial, and I think that this is a really great tool – I’m excited to use it going forward.
I don’t see this as disruptive technology. Wikipedia defines disruptive technology as innovation that disrupts an existing market. I see Google Instant as an enhancement. I have seen different forms of this itype of functionality in software for over 10 years. A software company that I worked allowed you to select an existing tag by typing the name and the existing tags would be listed in order and as you typed the name of the tag, the tag name would get closer to the top of the list where you were typing the name. It only seems logical that this functionality be added to Google’s search engine. Google Instant will be helpful for people typing on their phone or tablet pc, since both of those devices are kind of a hassle to type on. What a great way to get more people using Google more often!
After trying Google Instant again (after my first post), I can see that it almost lists the choices in alphabetical order. The description of Google Instant states that there is some predicting going on a they keystrokes are typed. My guess is that the subjects listed are based on keystroke matches and popularity. The other cool thing that I overlooked in my first post is that it lists the results of the closest match. That pretty impressive; mind blowing as a matter of fact. I am really impressed with the speed at which Google can make search results available. This will really help the tablet an cell phone folks! Disruptive technology? Maybe. The search box pick list seems to be geared toward topics that are close to previous searches that the individual conducted. I notice that if your connection speed is slow Google Instant will turn off, but you can just turn it back on by selecting on from the blue menu arrow to the right of the search box.
I must confess, I am mildly addicted to google and its products (as might be evident to many). So i routinely enable many beta and labs features that google brings out.
Google instant, no doubt is pretty cool. I smiled when I used it the first time. However, I don’t know if it really can be classified as disruptive. I’m sure that within Google’s offices, this probably was quite disruptive – changing the way the Human-Machine Interaction is thought of.
From a user standpoint, however, its an incremental innovation towards a more intuitive search experience.
Google was disruptive when it came out a while ago. The next disruptive thing they could do is read my mind and just show me what I want to search before I start typing something.
With a different perspective:
Google’s revenues are from ad sales. Google instant will enable more people to “discover” different avenues of web surfing than what they intended to search initially.
Still, is this a game changing technology for the advertisers and for google? Probably not.
I have personally experienced success using Google Instant. I often look for obscure results; such as “coal fired power plants with wet scrubbers and gypsum dewatering systems installed”. That kind of search is just about guaranteed to lead to a dead end. But with Instant, as I am typing I can see what options appear which has helped to narrow and focus my search to what I am looking for.
Disruptive technology? No. Incremental technology advancement? Yes. I decided to test this out by typing “search engine” into the field. After typing “s e a” the Google instant showed me the results for Sears. Then after typing “r c” it showed results for different search engines. The fact that it showed search results for Sears before I reached the destination I was seeking reminds me of the TV commercial (for another search engine I can’t remember) that pokes fun at word association in causing random jumps in topics of conversation. In this case, I see search results for Sears and my mind jumps there instead of what I’m working on. This feature – while it may be an innovation – is now making my attention span even shorter than before and more easily distracted. Thank you Google for making us more stupid. I still love you.
Well, from a perspective of an international student who is not a native English speaker, I think it’s more useful than before. Sometimes when I find it diffcult to type a word in the search box, I have to look it up in a dictionary. With this new technology, I believe it will improve my searching, not only the speed; also the possible spellings appear in the list will give me some related ideas. So I think it’s nice and useful
It’s a step in the right direction, but it doesn’t work in Safari on the iPad yet — the challenges will be greater there since there more network latency. I wonder how much of the processing they’re doing locally — the response is so fast on the wired network at that it seems like a fair amount. But, no, I don’t think it is disruptive. It may support a disruptive technology, though… will the next step be images of the pages you’re searching, better visual cues about similar and related pages that pop up in the search, or…?
In some instances you can hurt an existing product with change. Examples that I can think of are “New Coke.” Another example is a sequel to a block buster movie. The second movie never matches up and most everyone is left disappointed.
It’s neat but I’m not sure it qualifies as a disruptive technology. I doubt it will get more people to start using Google to search for things (who doesn’t anyway?), and really it’s just bringing the same feature we’ve had in Operating Systems for some time to a web search tool. It seems like it’s just adding visibility to something it was doing all along in the background as you type.
I think I agree with everyone else it’s an advancement but not a disruptiove technology. I personally find it annoying. It’s too distracting as you type in your search topic. Also, have we as a society become so AD HD that we can’t wait a split second for our results?
It may be my outdated computer, but since the new google enhansments, my search is slow. Its frustrating that it takes that long to show results, and god forbid I mistype a key word, that will add another 3 minute delay….
I agree with the rest of the posts. Google instant is not a disruptive technology, its an incremental enhancement to current search engine technology. However it is impressive and makes for an easier search experience. There has to be a lot of technology behind the scenes to come up with accurate search results in real time. But it doesn’t change the dynamic of how we search for information on the web.
I Guess It will eventually be a disruptive technology by starting to assisting other products/ markets and eventually displacing and/or creating a new market place for itself. Iam sure this instant search is just the first step. at the moment it is more an enhancement, but Just Imagine , in a totally different perspective, the need to know spellings might become a thing of past ( Iam reminded of a movie called “Idiocracy” http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/, A tackily made movie but quite funny) .I think it is going to create some new market opportunities and Speed being the “Mantra” currently and constantly changing scenario being common place, this aspect of instant search will evolve into a disrupter.
In my estimation, Google’s Instant makes web queries more efficient. In fact, given the new feature, Google claims that people can save anywhere from 3-5 seconds when conducting searches. I like that users have the capacity to see search results before they are even done typing, and thus far, I have not encountered slower results. In essence, what Google did was eliminated the need for an enter key—which is genius! The Instant feature is not disruptive for me – I think it enhances the search – and for those that may find it disruptive, I suspect that change, more than the feature itself, may be troublesome for some users. Thinking in terms of competition in the search engine market, I think Google will continue to sustain a competitive advantage so long as it continues to introduce innovative features such as Instant.
I think overall it’s an improvement, but nothing that’s life-changing for me as a search user. Not pressing the ENTER key may be nice, but it wasn’t that hard to begin with. For Google, it may be an innovation, but not a disruptive one. However, for the users, it’s a way to show them that Google is constantly improving their products. Otherwise, many people might forget that, since the webpage itself hasn’t changed much, though it has been tweaked recently. It became a way to show users that Google’s products aren’t static, and that Bing may be newer, but not necessarily better. Therefore, I believe it’s a move to retain customers, rather than to create a breakthrough innovation. Nevertheless, the predictive technology is incredible, and more often than not, the predicted search strings that it gives me fit well within the parameters I was going to type myself. So, from a technology standpoint, it may very well be disruptive, and be the foundation for many new products. Personally, I see this predictive technology working wonders in the fields of data mining and decision-making enterprise packages. It really shows us just how good Google is at helping people find the information they need.
I love this feature. I am not sure if Google or Amazon.com did this first but let me tell you, it is wonderful.
As someone who uses amazon.com like I use oxygen, I love being able to type in like 6-7 letters and see what I want pop up as an option. I must admit, I am spoiled by technology, so anything that can make my life a bit easier, even if by a few seconds, is ok by me!