Did Google Go Instant Just To Show More Ads? 250
eldavojohn writes "Google, already the largest search engine in the United States, went instant a few weeks ago. MIT's Tech Review asks why Google went instant and is skeptical that users actually look at search results before they finish typing their query. Othar Hansson, Google's lead on the initiative, informs them otherwise and claims that Google's traffic monitors didn't even blink at the extra data being sent across — primarily because of its insignificance next to streaming one video on YouTube. Hansson also reveals that Google's search engine is no longer stateless and therefore takes up a little more memory in their server hives. The Tech Review claims that 'sources at the company say Google Instant's impact on ad sales was a primary focus in testing the service. Google only gets paid for an advertisement, or sponsored link, when a user clicks on the ad, and ads are targeted to specific searches. By displaying a search's ads onscreen a couple of seconds sooner, the frequency of users clicking on those ads could only go up.' So money seemed to be the prime motivator and the article also coyly notes that the average length of time a user spends between typing in any two characters is 300 milliseconds — much too fast for old JavaScript engines. Of course, you might recall Google's efforts to change all that with JavaScript speed wars. Do you find Google Instant to be useful in any way, or does it strike you as just more ad gravity for your mouse?"
I just shut it off. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:No, not useful to me... (Score:3, Informative)
Most of the time when I accidentally go to the none https page, I find instant search annoying since I usually know what I'm searching for and I'm done typing before most of the page finishes spazzing out anyway.
Re:I find it annoying (Score:3, Informative)
Nimey's Internet Observation #1: People who write a word in CAPS to emphasize it nearly always mis-spell it.
Boxen -- Vaxen (Score:3, Informative)
If you're a "True Nerd" (TM)** then you'd know that the colloquialism "boxen" was derived from another colloquialism "VAXen" which came from the olden days (1970's - 1980's, even into the 90's) of computer science when Digital Equipment Corporation still existed and made a line of minicomputer called the "VAX". If you had more than one VAX system, the plural became known as "VAXen", derived from Old English use of the suffix "-en" tacked onto a noun to denote plural. This name came to be due to the fact that virtually all VAX sysadmins back in those days were mostly a bunch of goofy wierdos who still lived in their mothers' basements well into their 40's, never got laid, and seemed to live perpetually in a fantasy world composed solely of Renaissance Fairs.
Re:I find it annoying (Score:3, Informative)
I am also very put out by this feature. As an example for why it's so terrible, I was searching for some SQL subselect help at work the other day (natch, I'm at work now...). The first search I tried started out "How to insert..." Google instant helpfully popped up image search results for "How to insert a tampon". Google: NSFW (beta).
Ok, that is pretty damn funny, and tests out exactly as you state. Sounds like a new idea for a new blog, all the bad partial searches on Google.
I started with a very, very common quest: "How do you " and my options were:
how do you dougie
how do you get pregnant
how do you get scabies
So all I conclude is that most people are looking for 'how to' advice on very different stuff than the average nerd.
Re:I find it annoying (Score:3, Informative)
If your browser is set to clear cookies every time it closes, then you have to turn it off again every time you start using Google in a new browser session.
Firefox
+ NoScript
Right-click icon on task bar. Click 'forbid google.com'. Now u have them without Java, no auto searching B.S. You can add sites like google-analytics.com to the permanent untrust list.
Of course that also blocks the fancy bits of your gmail and other google.com services, but you can still use them just fine if you don't mind the slightly older, java-free style.
Re:Profit! (Score:3, Informative)
Two words: newspaper classifieds. That's a (historical in some places) example where readers are willing to pay just to see ads. I'm sure there are other examples out there.