The big announcement at 12:30 EST today was that Google wants to speed up the Google user experience by delivering search results differently.

Now (or by this evening…..follow this link if you want a preview of how it works: http://www.google.com/webhp?sclient=psy) when you’re logged into Google, you will experience “Google Instant” when you search. Consider these statistics from Google:

  • Before Google Instant, the typical searcher took more than nine seconds to enter a search term, and we saw many examples of searches that took 30-90 seconds to type.
  • Using Google Instant can save two to five seconds per search.
  • If everyone uses Google Instant globally, we estimate this will save more than 3.5 billion seconds a day. That’s 11 hours saved every second.

So, basically, now you’ll have extra time to do other things! For example, I probably use Google to search about 25-50 times per day. If what Google is saying is true, I will save approximately 131.5 seconds per day. Might not seem too impressive until you consider that that’s approximately 48,180 seconds per year….over 13 hours! Maybe now I’ll find time to go to the gym or write the next blockbuster vampire novel. The possibilities are endless. Thanks Google.

What do you think of Google’s big announcement? Are you impressed?

- Mary Smucker-Priest