Most of desktop users probably haven’t noticed the recent change in Google search engine. Mobile users probably have.
Google Instant Search feature has been recently removed. Originally it was launched in 2010, and its main goal was to make the searching process faster. Thanks to dynamic search users could save up to 5 seconds of precious time. Hence, why Google has decided to remove the feature?
Google Instant Search features
Google Instant Search provided users with information quickly – at least this was the idea behind it. As soon as users started typing their queries results started to appear and each typed character changed them. Search engine tried to guess what users where looking for and offered them suggestions, even before they finished typing. Was this feature useful? It was functional for the past 7 years, so the answer is yes. However, number of mobile users have increased and Google wants to keep the search fast and fluid on all devices.
What’s new?
The feature has been removed and currently search engine doesn’t show any results. Although, it still offers autocomplete suggestions the way it does so is much limited. Now as you type, you will only see search suggestions and then be able to click on the suggestions to see the results. The search results won’t show any result pages without clicking on a search suggestion or enter.
Why Google Instant Search has been removed?
Google still claims that the removal was dictated by the growing number of mobile users and their comfort. Google Instant Search was really useful on desktops and laptops, but it was quite the opposite on mobile screens where showing expanding results was irritating. The results took too much of mobile screens. Google claims that nowadays almost over half of queries comes from smartphones and tablets. Consequently, Google made this decision. What’s left are autocomplete suggestions which it still very useful tool for both kinds of users.
Not all users have noticed changes
There is a huge group of users who haven’t even noticed the changes. Some part have dropped Google Instant Search quite a while ago (it was possible to disable the feature yourself.) The change has been definitely appreciated by mobile devices users who see a huge difference when their screens are no longer covered by Google results.
