New clairvoyant Google knows what you’re thinking!

Google once again has created a buzz in the tech world although its arrival seems a bit anticlimactic. Google Instant was unleashed upon the U.S. today. I’ve just tried it, only for a few moments granted, but I see no real noticeable difference between the new product and what I’ve been using. Perhaps my letdown stems from the Google I’ve been Googling for sometime now already acted somewhat psychically. Its reputed near clairvoyance is a great portion of Instant’s buzz.

I have been a heavy Internet, first through work and then throughout the day, since the mid 90s. I have seen the remarkable — and then sometimes less than remarkable — progress the ‘net has made. I first started used Yahoo as my favored search engine. I don’t know why. Maybe it was because of their TV commercials. I can’t remember any of them offhand but my memory today isn’t as good as usual. Perhaps my use of Yahoo is because I like the name. I have met my share of yahoos. The term was supposedly coined by Jonathan Swift in “Gulliver’s Travels” but among its definitions these days and the one to which I refer are those folks — particularly in my region — who are not the sharpest chain saw blade in the shed and perhaps win the prize for having the greatest assortment of junk in their yard. They are “yokels,” people who are crude, perhaps even violent if you stir ’em up with a stick. Enough about that though.

Strangely enough, I had used Yahoo the search engine for a number of years and I was flabbergasted when about five years ago I interviewed a fairly well-known person in the media who asked me if Yahoo was a search engine. I won’t mention his name or his medium because there are any number of reasons he didn’t know, plus I know many, many people who are intelligent and good who would think a search engine is something used by the fire department.

When I did some freelance tech writing I began using Google more extensively. I found some of its features a very good fit for my business. For instance, I liked the wide swath it cast when doing a search for a definition: “define:” Or its fairly pinpoint location of something in a particular Internet domain. I don’t just snap up any picture on the Internet and use it on this site. I try to stay within the boundaries of Fair Use and other copyright laws. I don’t want to be sued if I can possibly help it.

Google eventually put out more and more features. After time I kind of marveled at how I would type a few letters  in the address bar (location bar/URL bar, whatever) and about ten sites would pop below the bar which suggested sites I might be looking for. Usually the first one would be correct. The same happened when typing something in the search space, upon which a number of suggested sites appeared. Now if Google does that on every computer, I can’t say. I did sign up for some Google experiments. I hope they don’t implant a computer chip in my head that tells me what to buy. After all, that’s what TV is for.

Although I may have been wowed about these helpful functions, the speed with which its performed by Google Instant seems to be among its most useful features. Google says that its epiphany that people read faster than they type is one of the factors in how this feature can shear 2-to-5 seconds off a search.

Time is money. What 2-to-5 seconds translates into money, I’d have to say that it beats me. But I am willing to bet that Google doesn’t trot out new features and spend millions upon it for sheer joy.