I’ve been reading a lot of blogs lately covering Google Instant, so what is Google Instant?

“Google Instant is a new search enhancement that shows results as you type. We are pushing the limits of our technology and infrastructure. This way, we can help you get better search results, faster. Our key technical insight was that people type slowly. However, they read quickly. Typically taking 300 milliseconds between keystrokes. However, only 30 milliseconds (a tenth of the time!) to glance at another part of the page. This means that you can scan a results page while you type.”

What’s in it for me then? As an end-user, it makes my search a bit faster; it can save 2-5 seconds per search. That’s for the end users. However, not all users love to be dictated as what to search for. Though, yes it’s just a suggestion. We all have different point of view on this. Good news it can be turned off. So as a user, you don’t have to worry. If you’re annoyed by this feature, turn it off.

How about if you’re doing PPC, that’s where the problem comes in. You get more impression that will surely result in a lower CTR, that part you have to worry about.  That’s where the challenge comes in, what you need to do to appear on the targeted search term and not on the suggested keywords.

For SEO, it’s too early to tell. If you do organic search engine placement, you need data to conclude whether to use long or short tail keywords.  So do you have to worry about it, for end-users definitely you don’t have to you can always turn it off but for PPC, you better do. As for the SEO, let’s wait for the data and see how it affects our business – don’t worry over something you don’t have enough data to say you really have to…for SEO..let’s just observe for now.