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Chrome 13 Adds Instant Pages, Print Preview | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

August 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Google on Tuesday released the latest version of its Chrome browser, which the search giant said adds 5,200 updates, including Instant Pages and print preview.

With Chrome 13, Instant Pages is on by default. “This means that sometimes when you click a Google search result in Chrome, the page will appear to load much faster than before,” Google said in a blog post. The video below provides a side-by-side comparison to demonstrate the speed gains.

Instant Pages was added to the Chrome beta channel in June. As PCMag software analyst Michael Muchmore noted, the move was interesting because Google was essentially requiring a particular browser to use a feature of its market-dominating search site. “Microsoft has received a thorough lashing at the hands of the tech press for this type of activity, because of its introduction of proprietary features in IE6 (some of which went on to become universally supported standards),” Muchmore wrote.

Google has also added print preview to Chrome, a feature that has been available on rival browsers for years. Chrome’s version of print preview is now available on Windows and Linux devices, but Google said it will also be added to Mac soon.

via Chrome 13 Adds Instant Pages, Print Preview | News & Opinion | PCMag.com.

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With Instant Pages, Google Aims to Accelerate Search Process | PCWorld

June 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

In an effort to accelerate the rendering of Web pages in users’ computers, Google has developed a search feature that predictively preloads pages before users click on result links.

The feature, called Instant Pages, will be rolled out as a beta test for Chrome browser users in the coming week, said Amit Singhal, a Google fellow, in the company’s Inside Search event on Tuesday, which was held in San Francisco and webcast.

Along with the existing Google Instant feature, which lets Google predict search results before users complete a query term, Instant Pages shaves off between four and 10 seconds from the search process, he said.

“The time it saves us is amazing,” Singhal said.

Even increasing the speed of the search process by milliseconds results in more frequent search usage and higher user satisfaction across the board, he said.

On average, a Web page takes five seconds to load after a user clicks on its Google search result, but Instant Pages cuts that down often to fractions of a second, officials said.

Instant Pages preloads in Google back-end systems the results Google determines a user is most likely to click on. Webmasters tracking usage of their websites will see the difference between a page that Google preloaded from their site and wasn’t clicked on, and pages that are actually visited by users, officials said.

via With Instant Pages, Google Aims to Accelerate Search Process | PCWorld.

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Google Instant Previews: A Hands-On Tour – PCWorld

November 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Google Instant Previews: The Newest Way to Search

Once you have Google Instant Previews enabled, you’ll see a small magnifying glass to the right of every Google search result (view full-sized image). To start using Instant Previews, you simply click on one of those icons. You can also hit the right arrow key if you prefer a mouseless navigation experience.

Whichever way you do it, activating the magnifying glass brings up a preview thumbnail for the page in question. It doesn’t take long, either; Google says it’s usually a delay of less than one-tenth of a second. Despite my best speed-counting efforts, I couldn’t quite tell if that estimation was precise — but let’s just say it was pretty darn close.

Each “instant” preview shows you a current view of the page, complete with text, graphics, and anything else that might be present (view full-sized image). If you click on the thumbnail, Google takes you to the site. If you move your mouse anywhere else within the search results, Google starts loading previews for other pages in the list.

When Google detects text that seems particularly relevant to your search, it creates an orange-highlighted pop-out box within the preview so you can read the words (view full-sized image). When I searched for “Conan O’Brien review,” for example, Google Instant Previews pulled out text showing a review of Conan’s first show from People.com.

via Google Instant Previews: A Hands-On Tour – PCWorld.

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Google Updates Search-Results Page With Site ‘Instant Previews’ – Bloomberg

November 9, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Google Inc. upgraded the way it presents search result images to simplify Web navigation and keep competition with Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo! Inc. at bay.

The updated service, called Instant Previews, gives users graphic snapshots of search results, and then highlights the most relevant parts of the websites, said Ben Gomes, an engineer at Google. The features are being rolled out in the U.S. and abroad today.

“What this allows you to do is compare the various results to pick the one that most appeals to you,” Gomes said. Users, who activate the service by clicking on a magnifying glass icon, are about 5 percent more likely to be satisfied with their results, he said, citing early testing by the company.

via Google Updates Search-Results Page With Site ‘Instant Previews’ – Bloomberg.

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Google Integrates Google Instant Into Chrome 8 Address Bar, Any Use? | WWWery http://bit.ly/cWJK7b #ediscovery

October 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Google Integrates Google Instant Into Chrome 8 Address Bar, Any Use? | WWWery http://bit.ly/cWJK7b #ediscovery

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Google Integrates Google Instant Into Chrome 8 Address Bar, Any Use? | WWWery

October 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment

One of the most noticeable changes in Chrome 8 is the integration of “Google Instant” search technology, right into the browser. Once you download Chrome 8 Dev release here and go to “about:labs” in the browser and enable “Instant,” there you go. Whatever you type, you have the results instantly. If the Instant recognizes a website URL the browser takes you to the website, if it recognizes a search phrase, then it takes you to the Google search results page which alters as you type in your search query. You would need to download and try it to understand it better.

Interestingly, the “Instant” feature also makes use of your browser history in fetching you the results or taking you straight to the website. For example, just to test, I cleared my browser’s history, then came straight to “wwwery.com” and closed the tab. (I must tell you, I had already enabled the ‘Instant’ feature in the labs). Now when I type in “W” into the URL/Address Bar the browser automatically takes me to my website. I haven’t done anything but that. No ENTER, nothing absolutely.

via Google Integrates Google Instant Into Chrome 8 Address Bar, Any Use? | WWWery.

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Which words does Google Instant blacklist? – CNN.com

September 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Some folks at the Hacker publication 2600 decided to compile a list of words that are restricted by Google Instant.

Except in extreme and special cases, Google is known for anything but censorship, but as we’ve said before, there are some terms the web giant’s new instant search feature won’t work with.

We understand Google’s intentions; the team over there is trying to make sure that no one sees pornographic or violent results they might fight disturbing unless they really mean to search for them. When asked about this feature a few weeks ago, Google’s Johanna Wright said the restrictions are in place to protect children.

But Google has opened itself up to a potential PR problem, because some of these omissions will be at best bewildering and at worst offensive to particularly sensitive (or progressive) users who don’t understand how Google Instant actually works.

For example, “bisexual” and “lesbian” are among the restricted words. Type them in to Google and the instant search will immediately stop delivering new results. You have to hit enter to confirm, yes, you really do want to know about something in some way related to bisexuals or lesbians.

via Which words does Google Instant blacklist? – CNN.com.

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Video: Google’s Brin Says Instant Search to Draw More Users

September 9, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Sept. 8 (Bloomberg) — Google Inc. co-founder Sergey Brin talks with Bloomberg’s Cris Valerio about how the owner of the world’s most popular search enginge unveiled a faster Internet search feature that gives users results as they type in requests. (Source: Bloomberg)

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Google Instant Provides Predictive Search – Search Engines from eWeek

September 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Google Sept. 8 introduced a faster way of searching the Web with Google Instant, which surfaces search results as users type their queries.

Google Instant, which the company hinted at through a Sept. 7 Google Doodle made of bouncing balls, is a predictive search technology.

Where Google Suggest provides search suggestions when users type queries in the search box, Instant extends this capability by guessing users’ queries as they begin to type them.

At a news event held to announce the technology at the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco, Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience for Google, said Google Instant was designed to accelerate the search process for users.

Users tend to spend 9 seconds on average entering a search query into Google, Mayer said. After they hit the search button, the query spends an average of 300 milliseconds traversing Google’s servers before results hurtle back to the users, who spend an average of 15 seconds picking a selection from the results.

That’s almost half a minute from time of entry to result selection. Google Instant is an effort to shave time off the task by predicting what users are looking for as they type, bypassing the search button.

via Google Instant Provides Predictive Search – Search Engines from eWeek.

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