Google unveils 'quantum leap' in web search technology

AFP - Google on Wednesday began delivering Internet search results as fast as a person can type.

After two days of teasingly tinkering with the Google logo, or "doodle," atop its home page, the Internet giant ended the mystery by unveiling "Google Instant" -- a speedier route to Web search results.

As users type in a query, the Google search box displays a list of suggested terms and displays the actual results for the top suggestion.

"Google Instant actually gets queries and gives you search results as you type and streams those results to your computer," Google vice president of search products and user experience Marissa Mayer said.

"We are actually predicting what query you are likely to do and giving you results for that. There is actually a psychic element to it," Mayer said at a press event in the San Francisco Museum of Art.

Google Instant began rolling out immediately in the United States and would expand to Britain, France, Germany, Russia and three other countries during the course of the coming week, according to Mayer.

Instant search works on Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer 8 software for browsing the Internet.

"We are really excited about what Google Instant could mean in terms of the evolution of search," Mayer said. "We think Google Instant is a quantum leap forward in search."

Google is putting finishing touches on a version of Google Instant for smartphones and other mobile devices and should release it in the next several months, according to Mayer.

"I think this is a piece of an ever-changing landscape of computing," said Google co-founder Sergey Brin. "Things coming out in the next decade from Google and other companies will really change the way we do computing."