Woha Google Instant!

There’s been talk for a few weeks about Google Instant, the version of Google Search that refreshes your SERPs as you type, but I didn’t realize that you could use it right now!

To enable Google instant go to this URL: http://www.google.com/instant/ and click “try it now”.

Edit:

David Flowers brings up a good point: with PPC ads displaying, how will this affect Ad Impressions and Click Through Rate?

From Google’s advertiser FAQ:

How impressions are counted

When someone searches using Google Instant, ad impressions are counted in these situations:

• The user begins to type a query on Google and clicks anywhere on the page (a search result, an ad, a spell correction, a related search).
• The user chooses a particular query by clicking the Search button, pressing Enter, or selecting one of the predicted queries.
• The user stops typing, and the results are displayed for a minimum of three seconds.

We recommend monitoring your ads’ performance the same way you usually do. Google Instant might increase or decrease your overall impression levels. However, Google Instant can improve the quality of your clicks since it helps people search using terms that more directly connect them with the answers they need. Therefore, your overall campaign performance could improve.

Edit 2:

Ani brings my attention to this great blog post by Webdistortion on how to track Google Instant in Google Analytics. They point out that keyword reports are going to become odd once micro-keywords start popping in.