Google Suggest (beta) - New Google's Search Auto-Complete Feature...

Lately, Google has been producing so many useful tools and utilities, not to mention its amazing search capabilities. Many of those new tools pass through a long phase of BETA testing to ensure that they reached their optimum usefulness and are ready to be put to use by the masses.

So now, Google has released a BETA version of one more tool, called Google Suggest!...

You know how many of today's Web browsers have an auto-complete feature, where you type a few letters and that application tries to recognize the phrase you're typing and complete it for you? Well, this is just that. Now, you type a word into the usual search box, and Google tries to figure out what you are searching for, based on the popularity of the search keywords.

It's still not perfect, I admit, but it has great potential. Perhaps, if many people get involved in the BETA testing, which doesn't require signing up or anything, this service will be greatly enhanced and ready soon.

Check it out on the link below, and tell me what you think ...

Google SUGGEST Beta

 

 

 

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Heh. Funny. I kinda find it useless though, I tend to know exactly what I'm Googling for. Nice to get around typos or waiting for the results page to load on slow connections!

I find it kind of freaky to have "paris hilton" as the 1st suggestion when I press the letter P. *shrugs*

Nice find anyway, thank you!

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Lucky you ! Sometimes, it takes me a while to know exactly how I'm going to perform a certain search. Plus, it comes handy when you, for example, looking for an actor whom you know his first name but can't remember his last name, don't you think?


Kinda gives you an idea about what searchers are really interested in, doesn't it?


You're very welcome, KazDoran.

 

 

 

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Nice find - but they've already employed the same concept for Google Desktop Search. Even there it's find-as-you-type, which does help a lot. In the web version, it can show only suggestion for search strings - but the desktop version starts spitting out results immediately.. so in most cases, by the time you've typed the first 3-4 characters, you've already found your search-object.. there's no need to press the search button either

In a way, this suggest thing will help one kill a lot of free time. Quite often (when I'm done with reading/replying to all the message boards and emails) - I keep wondering what to do.. There are times, I can't find interesting sites either. This suggest thingie will surely help me in reaching out on a wide variety of stuff with some minor wordplay in the search field. It actually spits out suggestions for search string - which you won't normally encounter or think of. I do see the potential of this.

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What I find really great about Google is that its always undergoing constant innovation. And, although everything is adsupported, the advertising is unobtrusive and it really works for the end user - by offering choices in whicherver arena or vertical a search/ other operation is being carried out.

Google' suggest is a natural extension to the text based advertising I believe. Since the technology already existed with Google to bring in advertising that is iline with a user's search, the same technology may be extended to non advertising suggestions (similar search parameters). Overall, something that will enhance a user's search experience.

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Kind of playing off Transcendum's thing about knowing an actors first name but not last, alot of time's if I need to google for a phrase (more in research type queries then a quick reference) I may not know the full term, a good search term, or even the exact spelling for more complex words/phrases and this would be a more intuitive way of quickly realizing if you have the wrong spelling then searching and getting a "Did you mean ____?". While that feature is often accurate, sometimes its way off heh, good to have options.

Plus it's non obtrusive so when you know your search topic, it is irrelevant, but when you need a little extra help it's right there once you pause for a split second. I like those types of enhancements. Ones that are helpful, but not forced right in your face and impeding peoples ability to use the product as previously used.

Plus, like m^e mentioned, I too could spend lots of time exploring things I normally wouldn't based off of popular results poping up that I wouldn't have thought to look for. Hell back when I first heard about this I remember just typing in random letter combo's to see where it would take me haha. All in all, I give google suggest the ol thumbs up

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Yes, you have a point there m^e, and I agree that Google Desktop Search is currently better than the online Suggest version, but the Desktop applet sometimes becomes too irritating. I know I turned it off after giving it a couple of days trial . It can come really handy, but at least the online version can be used by a much wider variety of users. Plus, it was inevitable that Google would incorporate in their Website sooner or later .



Fantastic insight, kaputnik... seriously, it is. Thanks for pointing that out; I didn't notice it at all.

Of course I agree with you that it's not a bad thing. A company has got to make some money. And the great thing about Google is that you make their solutions so valuable and so unobtrusive that I find myself wanting to use them anyway. A win-win situation .



Very ture, Jeigh. That happens to me a lot. Since I'm dental student, and a lot of times I find myself searching for a latin phrase or something but am not sure of how it's spelled, and sometimes I spend really long time looking it up. This could prove to be a real time-and-effort-saver.

The reason I wanted more people to know about this is that Google Suggest is still in a BETA stage. So I was hoping that, as more people get to use it, evaluate it, and comment on it, Google can fix whatever bugs there might be and add whatever features people might ask for sooner. I suspect they'll implement it on their Homepage after the BETA testing phase is over.

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Heh, I think Google Suggest beta came out a long time ago (12/9/04, to be precise), so I wouldn't call it new anymore... But it should be constantly improved by the Google Labs team, so I guess it could be considered new...

I don't really like Google Suggest, because it has never been able to correctly guess what I am trying type. After a long time, the list that pops up (or should I say pop under?) just becomes annoying. I become distracted by the list, and sometimes I forget why I was searching the query.

But you guys pointed out a good point that I have never thought about before. There are many phrases/idioms that I do not know. Google Suggest can be a great help for that. However, I rarely, if not never, search for these phrases.

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Hello szupie ...

You know, that's exactly the reason I said we should try to participate actively in the BETA testing. So the auto-completion engine can learn more about the searching habits of users and correct itself accordingly. I mean, Google uses a very complex PROLOG implementation for its search engine, and PROLOG is basically an artificial intelligence programming language, so the more it learns, the better it becomes .

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Hum...but the point is--are any of Google's products actually out of BETA? I mean, it's search engine obviously is, but besides that? Google sort of seems to be using Beta as a coverup for the releases of its services in case there are any flaws. That way, they can't be blamed in such a harsh manner for their mistakes.

Nonetheless, I do like Google Suggest. It's useful, and I end up learning a lot of new phrases or about new things just by chosing some query on the Suggest list. I usually use Suggest when I'm bored and want to find out about something new, though. If it's really something I must get done fast and need to stick to the topic, I just use normal Google search. Faster, and less distracting.

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