What's up with Google.com lately?

Yesterday we had balls rolling around the screen. Today we have a grayed out Google logo.

I know why Google is doing all this, but I can't say why (yet). Yes, it's a gimmick to promote a new feature. Furthermore, by the time you read this you'll probably have heard the announcement yourself. However, if you happen to read this before 12:30p Eastern today be sure to check out the Google YouTube channel to see the announcement.

On a side note, I went to Google.com to type "why is the google logo gray today?" or something to that effect. Well, I had barely typed "why" when I saw the Google logo change colors and show the results from the image posted above. "Why did I get married..." shows up TWICE! "Why do dogs eat grass" and "why is my poop green" are also hilarious. Playing the Google guess game is always fun, even when you do so unexpectedly.


P.S. If you haven't heard, Google announced Instant Search earlier today. See Google's announcement here:
http://www.google.com/instant/#utm_campaign=launch&utm_medium=van&utm_source=instant

"Google Instant is a new search enhancement that shows results as you type. We are pushing the limits of our technology and infrastructure to help you get better search results, faster. Our key technical insight was that people type slowly, but read quickly, typically taking 300 milliseconds between keystrokes, but 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.

"The most obvious change is that you get to the right content much faster than before because you don’t have to finish typing your full search term, or even press “search.” Another shift is that seeing results as you type helps you formulate a better search term by providing instant feedback. You can now adapt your search on the fly until the results match exactly what you want. In time, we may wonder how search ever worked in any other way."


Maybe it will strike you as a rather small improvement, but consider what happens when you're searching for something but you don't know exactly what to type to find it. You try one thing, it doesn't work. So you try something else, that doesn't work, either. And so on, until you find the magic words to get the results you want. Now you can see the results as you type. The instant you see you're not on the right track, you backtrack and try something else right away.

As Google says:
"Smarter Predictions: Even when you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, predictions help guide your search. The top prediction is shown in grey text directly in the search box, so you can stop typing as soon as you see what you need."


Information Week has a nice take on it. I like the term "psychic search" better than "instant search" by the way!
http://www.informationweek.com/news/infrastructure/management/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=227300403&subSection=News

"In 2000, psychic search was a joke. One of Google's April Fool's gags that year was the introduction of Google MentalPlex, 'the only search engine that accurately returns results without requiring you enter a query.'

"Nowadays, it's not a laughing matter. Google VP of search products and user experience Marissa Mayer may have been speaking in jest when she described Google Instant by saying, 'There's actually a psychic element to it.' But Google can divine a user's intent from a few typed letters more reliably than fortune telling hucksters. Google's store of data has become so vast that mysticism is now the most convenient metaphor to understand search science."


Finally, Lifehacker has a demonstration showing that, yes, Google Instant Search IS a faster way to search:
"How Much Faster is Google Instant?"
http://lifehacker.com/5633097/how-much-faster-is-google-instant