Google Instant

[Rageaholic]

Okay, who thought this was a good idea? You have a program that gives you a new page of results with every keystroke. It's supposed to make things easier, but all it does is slow things down, interrupt progress, and generally annoys the hell out of users. All to give you a few less keystrokes to type when searching for a result? WTF?

It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't the default setting. It would be nice to have an option available that would let you shut it down without resetting to default. Now I can't even turn off the damn thing!

I know it's a minor thing to rant about, but it's so damn annoying!!!

[Andara Bledin]

I'm curious: How does it slow things down and interrupt progress?

^-.-^

[HYHYBT]

I'm just surprised anybody goes to the actual website to begin their search when browsers routinely include a search field that does the same thing (if you can get it unstuck from Bing, at least.)

[Kheldarson]

You don't have to start your search there. I get what Rage is saying. Before I got my new computer, I'd start a search for, let's say, Jansenism. But after seeing the results, I realize that I need to limit it to Jansenism in Belgium vs. France. So I go up to the search bar to add that. Before the instant option, I'd type in my modifiers then click go and all's well. With Instant and before my new computer, the browser would freeze as it would try to catch up with the new list of search options it wants me to look at even though I'm not done with typing in the modifiers. It seriously killed my six year old computer, fast. Sorry, Google, not all of us are rich enough to replace our computers every year to have the latest in tech.

[Gravekeeper]

Yeah, I noticed this new "feature" recently and honestly find it rather idiotic and counter-intuitive. All they've done is taken the autocomplete search feature and forced it to actually load the results for every suggestion as you type. The only thing it does is generate more page views and thus more ad hits and revenue for them. It doesn't actually help the end user in any way. Its just a brilliant method of cash generation.

Doesn't bother my desktop at all, its a beast. But yeah it does drag on my netbook and it seems to bog Google itself down at times. So thanks, Google. -.-

[AdminAssistant]

I'm just surprised anybody goes to the actual website to begin their search when browsers routinely include a search field that does the same thing

I'm surprised that anyone is ever using anything other than Google Chrome, with its one bar for entering in either web addresses or search terms.

[Andara Bledin]

I'm surprised that anyone is ever using anything other than Google Chrome, with its one bar for entering in either web addresses or search terms.

I despise having a single bar. Sometimes I want to actually search for sites that mention a URL and not actually go to it. Plus, Chrome has other shortcomings that make it not desirable.

As for the new search behavior, it does for me exactly what they say it does; it cuts down my search times because I discover terms I have to exclude before I'm even done typing my initial search terms. Considering the types of searches I do, usually for work, this actually saves me quite a bit of time over the course of the day.

^-.-^

[HYHYBT]

I used Chrome for a few days on a borrowed computer. The lack of a title bar alone was enough nuisance not to download it. But to each his own.

Surely, though, *somebody* likes this newish Google feature. Good for click counts or not, if they make the site annoying then people will use something else.

It lets me keep typing, by the way, even on a G4 Mac, which is the oldest I have handy at the moment for testing. It *appears* to freeze for a brief moment after the first character or two, but it catches up by the end of the second word and doesn't lose any characters along the way.

[gremcint]

You know you can turn it off right?

click the little gear symbol it's under search settings.