Science and technology
Google and online search
Google's guessing gain
Sep 9th 2010, 13:33 by M.G. | SAN FRANCISCO
EVEN though it dominates the search business, Google is not a company to rest on iits laurels. On September 8th it unveiled "Google Instant", a new feature that displays search results as soon as users start to type in queries rather than waiting from them to finish their sentence. The new service, which will eventually be rolled out around the world, is designed to speed up the process of online searching and to keep Google ahead of ambitious rivals such as Microsoft's Bing.
The company reckons that its latest tweak to its wildly successful search product could cut between two and five seconds off of a typical web search. According to its figures, the average web surfer currently spends around nine seconds typing in a query and then another 15 seconds trawling through and selecting a result. For now the new service is set to predict outcomes based on aggregated user search behaviour, though later on the firm may be able to make guesses that are more tailored to an individual's search history.
Some critics have argued that the new service could actually slow down searches by tempting users to click on results that aren't really relevant to their interests. But Google seems confident that on balance Google Instant will make it easier for people to get to the data they need more swiftly. Users who find the new service annoying can simply switch it off.
Google's move has also sparked much speculation about what all this will mean for advertisers. The company itself has stayed mum about the impact this is likely to have on its revenues from search advertising, though it is unlikely to have unleashed Instant if it didn't think it would enhance its ability to mint money from its core business. Some folk fret that the much-vaunted "psychic" nature of Google Instant could dent companies' ability to ensure that their ads are seen by the right people at the right time by adversely influencing ad rankings. But by displaying search results as people type, Google is confident it is helping folk get to the results they need--and the contextual ads associated with them--even faster.
More worrying for Google is news that anti-trust watchdogs are taking an even closer interest in its activities. Search engine land, a blog, recently revealed that Texas's attorney general is investigating complaints that the company has abused its position as the internet's dominant search engine. European regulators have also been digging into claims that Google unfairly promotes its own services in results over those of competing services. One doesn't need Google Instant to be able to predict that such legal tussles will become far more of a headache for the search giant in future.
In this blog, our correspondents report on the intersections between science, technology, culture and policy. The blog takes its name from Charles Babbage, a Victorian mathematician and engineer who designed a mechanical computer.
Advertisement
Babbage audio
- Analects | China
- Americas view | The Americas
- Babbage | Science and technology
- Bagehot's notebook | British politics
- Banyan | Asia
- Baobab | Africa
- Blighty | Britain
- Buttonwood's notebook | Financial markets
- Charlemagne's notebook | European politics
- Clausewitz | Defence, security and diplomacy
- Democracy in America | American politics
- Eastern approaches | Ex-communist Europe
- Elysée | France’s presidential election
- Free exchange | Economics
- Game theory | Sports
- Graphic detail | Charts, maps and infographics
- Gulliver | Business travel
- Johnson | Language
- Leviathan | Public policy
- Lexington's notebook | American politics
- Newsbook | News analysis
- Prospero | Books, arts and culture
- Schumpeter | Business and management
Most commented
- The euro in crisis: Groping towards Grexit
- The euro crisis: The Greek run
- Gay marriage: North Carolina begs the question too
- Renouncing citizenship: Did Eduardo Saverin do anything wrong?
- Brazil’s economy: A bull diminished
- Greek politics: Slouching towards the drachma
- The euro crisis: Europe’s Achilles heel
- Should gay marriage be legal in America?
- The euro crisis: Going, going, gone?
- Daily chart: The German motor
Over the past five days
Most recommended
- Lexington: Peter David
- The euro crisis: Europe’s Achilles heel
- Gay marriage: North Carolina begs the question too
- Renouncing citizenship: Did Eduardo Saverin do anything wrong?
- The euro crisis: The Greek run
- The euro in crisis: Groping towards Grexit
- J.P. Morgan’s trading mistakes: A billion here, a billion there
- Greek politics: Slouching towards the drachma
- Poverty: The audacity of hope
- Greece fails to form a government: Adrift
Over the past seven days
Advertisement
Readers' comments
The Economist welcomes your views. Please stay on topic and be respectful of other readers. Review our comments policy.
Sort:
From an advertiser's perspective -
Instant Search shows a strong brand bias. This clearly seems to be an attempt to "leak" traffic to branded keywords. Type "a" and you will see suggestions for amazon, att and two other brands before you see a itself. Infact of the 26 letters, 20 have brands as the first suggestion? Is this simply based on user preference? Highly unlikely.
This should drive up both traffic on branded terms as well as revenues for Google.
I like to think of this as "temporal" optimization; showing ads while you are about to declare intent about a product/idea/concept. It is akin to going to a supermarket to buy a brush on aisle 13, but as you walk from aisle 1 to aisle 13, you are being shown ads for products on aisle 2 when you are close to aisle 1, ads for products on aisle 5 when you are close to aisle 4 and so on.
Even if user intent is strong and they are for large part not swayed by these suggestions, we should expect some leakage effects which should increase Google revenue. At the scale Google currently operates, even small percentage points increase in revenue will matter.
My detailed analysis: http://blog.efrontier.com