By now, you would have heard of Google Instant, which is Google’s most recent improvement to their search engine. It is kinda like a digital version of Instant Coffee, getit? First deployed by Google since Sept 8, 2010, and so far only available on Google domains in United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and Spain, it is propagating to other domains worldwide, probably to achieve whole world domination status in a few months’ time.
Google Instant is supposed to give you instant access to results, through the magic of Ajax, and is able to save you 2-5 seconds per search.
Google Instant
How to access Google Instant even if it is not available to your country
According to Google, this feature is only available to other parts of the world if you are logged into Google’s network, Gmail, for example. However, there are always more than one way to dunk a skinned cat into your coffee, like my mother used to say. 😉
If you’re from other parts of the world, like Malaysia, for example, instead of keying in http://www.google.com, which will automatically redirect you to the .my local site, try typing in http://www.google.com/ncr (No Country Redirect) or http://www.google.com/en (Google in English).
How Do I Know That This Is Working?
As a Demo, key in “Malaysia” in the search box. Do it NOW! 🙂
As soon as you keyed in “M” on Google’s search box on the Search page, you will immediately be taken to Google’s “Results” page, where you can see results for “Mapquest” being generated as Google’s powerful computers begin to read your mind.
By the time you keyed in “Mal”, you will notice that the results have changed to “Malwarebytes”, as Google Instant attempts to follow your wandering thoughts. Spooky, isn’t it? :/
$%^&$ It’s Not Working! (…and I am from the US, UK or one of the supported countries)
Calm down! This probably means that you are using an older browser, which is not supported by Google Instant.
So far, Google Instant is available for: Chrome v5 or 6, Firefox v3, Safari v5 for Mac and Internet Explorer v8. For Opera users, you will need to get your browser to pretend to be any one of these browsers. 😉
If you still cannot get it to work, try going to http://www.google.com/instant/ Â which will let you know if it detects incompatibility with your browser. There is also a FAQ there.
And if you still cannot, feel free vent your frustration in the comments area below. :/
To Get This To Work From Your Default Browser’s Search Bar
You will also need to set http://www.google.com/ncr as the homepage in your favorite browser so that you can have access to this feature from the browser’s Search Bar. Otherwise, you will be redirected to your country’s page when you hit the ENTER key.
Note that you will still need to hit ENTER from the Search Bar to take you to Google’s Search page, after which your Google Instant browsing experience will begin.
To have it really working from the Search Bar, you will have to wait a while longer. A working version is in the works and already available for the development version of Google Chrome.
Now if you will excuse me, I need to go get myself some coffee …