On Tuesday, Google rolled out the red carpet for an impressive slate of new enhancements to the web search experience.
Google says the tweaks are largely directed at making web search more effective, comprehensive, and exponentially faster.
Google accomplishes this, at least in part, by playing psychic. Sort of.
In a move that some say is largely making the web itself faster, Google is now pre-loading web pages in search results for users employing the Chrome browser or other browsers that have a special plug-in.
Dubbed Google Instant for Pages, Google is essentially aiming to predict what a user is going to click on, a process that Google claims can shave several seconds off the search process while boosting impressions during the user session.
Given that mobile search traffic has grown five-fold in the previous twenty-four months, it comes as no surprise that the Internet search giant is hunkering down and devoting enormous amounts of time and resources to bolster the search process in any way conceivable.
Google, however, didn’t restrict innovation to the mobile platform with its revelations on Tuesday. Desktop users have new Google-baked bells and whistles to play with too. Voice search, for example, has finally been given the green light by Google – not a bad move, especially since voice traffic has exploded six-fold in the past twelve months.
Prior to Tuesday’s announcement, voice search was limited by Google to Android mobile devices.
But perhaps the most dazzling – or at least intriguing – of improvements introduced this week by Google is Search by Image.
Let’s say, for example, you have an image, logo, or other visual entity that you can’t identify. Google’s new Search by Image functionality may be able to provide some answers. The new feature allows users drag and drop unknown images into the search box or upload a similarly mystifying picture and Google will swiftly take care of the rest – or at least try to.
Google says Search by Image will be available within the next few days.
To learn more about the latest sophisticated developments Google has unveiled, check out Google Inside Search.
