Google Live Search – New Live Updating Google Results Experiment Causes Marmite Reaction: Love it or Hate it

Google have made a number of refinements to their search engine in recent months. The Caffeine and Mayday tweaks have altered the dynamics of search and caused a bit of a headache for search engine optimisation experts. A number of other aesthetic tweaks to the dashboard have taken place, including changes to the images section, dictionary listings and the colour of paid adverts. All of these things have been engineered with the intention of enhancing the user experience.

Over the weekend there was some speculation surrounding the testing of Google’s latest dashboard tweak, but in honesty I am not overly keen about it and fear it may be something Google end up throwing in the waste bin along with the Google Wave expedition.

The latest Google experimentation is a feature that alters search results as you type. This tool dynamically modifies the page offering instant page refinement rather than the user having to press the enter key every time a keyword phrase is altered. It might sound efficient, but in reality it doesn’t really bring anything to the search experience. It’s all a bit flashy and the page jumps around rather annoyingly causing havoc on slower internet connections.

Apparently this is just in the experimentation stage, Google commented, “At any given time we are running between 50-200 search experiments. You can learn more on our blog.”

You can see the video here:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty71OxyQKKc[/youtube]

Judging by the comments on YouTube I doubt this will become a permanent feature and for search engine optimisation experts this won’t really have any impact or ramifications for search – it’s all a bit frivolous really.