Hoping to cut down on searches for misspelled words, Internet search leader Google has implemented a  search term suggestion feature to its main Web site that allows users to save time by seeing a list of possible searches while they type. The new addition to the Mountain View, California-based company's homepage, called Google Suggest, also aimed to help fill in the blanks for users who might remember some but not all the words of certain phrases such as song lyrics or quotations, and to make Google searches more efficient by making it unnecessary to type in complete searches in many cases. Auto-Compete Feature Joins Main Google Site Keyword suggestion features have been available for some time in many software applications and on other search engine sites, most notably Yahoo and its Search Assist tool which debuted in October 2007, however Google Assist will be a late entrant into the mainstream field as it rolls out to Google users in the United States throughout the week, despite having previously been available in experimental form as part of Google Labs and in other Google services. With the homepage launch of Google Suggest, all Google searchers using the English language "will start seeing a list of query suggestions when you start typing into the search box" that Google Suggest developer Jennifer Liu said can appear "like magic." Liu announced the addition of Google Suggest Monday in a message posted on the official company blog, an upgrade that "provides real-time suggestions while you search," she noted. One of the reasons Google chose to make the keyword suggestion feature a part of its main search engine site was the effect it is expected to have on alleviating common spelling mistakes. Based on the same system Google has used to help searchers by suggesting alternative correctly spelled words after searches for commonly misspelled terms -- a system the company calls "Did you mean?" -- with Google Suggest the Internet giant hopes users can avoid "wasting your time with a misspelled query like 'new yrok times' or 'tomorow never dies'," and instead use the new feature to "search the first time with the correctly-spelled query," Liu wrote in the Monday announcement. May Bring Faster Searching With Fewer Keystrokes Google Suggest began as the sideline project of a Google employee in 2004, as part of the company's so-called "20 percent" program, that has allowed its workers to pursue interests outside their main area of research. Google had already implemented the Google Suggest functionality into several of its services before Monday's launch on its main site. "The Google Suggest feature originally started as a 20% project in 2004, and has since expanded to Google Labs, Toolbar, Firefox search box, Maps and Web Search for select countries, the iPhone and BlackBerry, YouTube, and now Google.com," said Liu, who along with Miki Herscovici and other Google developers have brought Google Suggest to the majority of the company's customers. "By providing suggestions upfront, we can help people search more efficiently and conveniently," Liu said of the new feature, which immediately begins showing a drop-down box of suggested search words and phrases as soon as a user begins typing in the Google search box. The feature aimed to save Google users time and keystrokes by allowing them to select one of the suggested search terms using either a mouse click or the arrow and enter keys on a keyboard. Suggestions come from Google's vast collection of user search data and are based on the popularity of search terms, with rough figures next to each possible alternative on the drop-down list representing the number of Web sites likely to come up during a search. The numbers may serve to help Google users steer clear of search terms with millions of results and instead hone in on more specific alternative terms. Long Tail Search Could See Changes According to Google the new search query formulation feature "does not base its suggestions on your personal searches, although it does use information about the relative popularity of common searches to rank its suggestions." Google Suggest caught some users by surprise, adding in some cases dozens of lines of suggested search terms to each search they performed on the famously unadorned Google homepage. Google has made the new feature the default action for searches, however an account preferences page option to turn it off was available to signed-in Google users who found the new look distracting. Some users may not see the Google Suggest functionality until Friday depending on their location, however the feature can be tested independently as another Google site. When fully implemented Google Suggest could change the way the majority of Google searches are conducted, as users choose the readily available, correctly spelled suggested search terms with a simple click of the mouse button instead of typing in the phrase they may have had in mind -- a prospect that has some people who optimize Web sites to best match the terms people type in on search engines rethinking old strategies. Among the members of WebmasterWorld, one of the oldest and most popular Web sites serving mostly the technically-savvy people who manage Web sites and specialize in Search Engine Marketing (SEM), the Google Suggest move from a Labs experiment to the Google homepage drew varied reactions. Leading Search Site Gets Keyword Suggestions In Google Rollout One WebmasterWorld member was left "wondering if this new default 'Suggest' feature might hurt some long  tail search traffic -- and maybe some typo searches too." The same member, using the handle "tedster", considered the Google Suggest drop-down box of options as likely to change how some Google users search. "One of those options is more likely to be selected and the user may find what they were looking for on that search -- and never type in their original idea for a search," the member noted. Another member of WebmasterWorld, which has origins dating back to the pre-Web days of online bulletin board systems, saw the changes Google Suggest may bring as a new opportunity to reach searchers. "I don't think it will hurt long tail, maybe just drive more traffic to those terms," wrote a WebmasterWorld member using the handle "wheel". Some members had already chosen to turn off the new feature. "The auto form fill in my browser, which I used to track what I search for, no longer works," a member using the handle "atlrus" wrote of the addition of Google Suggestion. "What I don't like is that you have to constantly opt-out for the 'regular results'," noted another WebmasterWorld member using the handle "incrediBILL", referring to the use of the Web browser cookies that Google uses to store account settings such as whether a user has turned the new feature off -- small text files that some people regularly delete for security purposes. Related Links:
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