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Google Suggest graduates... finally!  (View post)

Martin Porcheron [PersonRank 10]

Tuesday, August 26, 2008
15 years ago11,091 views

Google has just announced that Suggest will finally be graduating from Labs and will be rolled out to Google.com over the course of the week.

Source: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/at-loss-for-words.html

All I can say is, better late than never :¬)

Above 1 comments were made in the forum before this was blogged,

Marko Bon [PersonRank 0]

15 years ago #

Isn't this called Predictive Type?

scjm [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

Yuck.

Eugene Villar [PersonRank 5]

15 years ago #

I don't find it annoying and it's occasionally useful. I'm assuming that the same feature is the one being used in the searchbox in Firefox 3. (Fx3 shows recommended search terms from Google aside from the history autocomplete.)

alon g [PersonRank 0]

15 years ago #

I haven't searched from google.com in years. Why would anyone use the page when you have the search box built into Firefox?

Juan Pablo [PersonRank 1]

15 years ago #

I love the auto suggest feature. I was in the labs suggest feature testing and I noticed some days ago that this was removed from my default homepage.
Now I know why...grrreat

Andy Wong [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

I wish I still have some choices, as what should be suggested is subject to culture and personal preference.

Teodor Filimon [PersonRank 3]

15 years ago #

It's about time they added this feature. Every time i set Google as my homepage i had to go to the Suggest page.. :)

Rohit Srivastwa [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

That will be great.

Colin Colehour [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

I like Google Suggest and use the Firefox search box feature all the time. But, will this be something that can be turned off through Google Preferences?

James Xuan [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

Yay!

i'm guessing you will be able to turn it off though

scjm [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

I like this personally, but think it is too Web 2.0ish and tacky for the Google.com front page.

jojo [PersonRank 1]

15 years ago #

This is AWESOME! Actually this feature has been available for some time now when you do a Google Search on Google Toolbar. I find this very useful and convenient the same way I find "Did you mean: (correct spelling suggestion)" when I do a Google Search and make a spelling error. Thank you again Google!

bart [PersonRank 0]

15 years ago #

Could this mean that their spelling correction feature might not "learn" enough of mis-spellings...in the future? Do THEY realize this?

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

The auto-completion is enabled for me now...

http://blogoscoped.com/files/google-suggest-enabled-2008.png

(But not for the search box on result pages, only on the homepage.)

Ionut Alex. Chitu [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

Last month, I saw Google Suggest enabled by default at google.fr, but only for the homepage. I remember that Yahoo also started with the homepage and then added Search Assist to search results pages.

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

Oddly enough, I have this set in the preferences:

( ) Provide query suggestions in the search box.
(x) Do not provide query suggestions in the search box.

(Even when I check the first option, the next time I vist the preferences page, the second option is checked – and in any case the homepage will have auto-completion.)

Ionut Alex. Chitu [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

That's exactly what happened when YouTube first enabled the suggest feature. Now it works fine.

Colin Colehour [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

I still don't have the new Suggestions feature available here in Minnesota. No option under preferences to turn it on or off yet.

Ionut Alex. Chitu [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

http://clients1.google.com/complete/search?hl=en&q=query

Ionut Alex. Chitu [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

[put at-character here]Philipp:
That means there's no way to disable Suggest for now. Google should fix this before people start complaining.

Randall [PersonRank 0]

15 years ago #

I HATE google suggest and am really disappointed that they have now made this the default....changing my default search engine as we speak.

Mysterius [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

[put at-character here]Randall: Well, you could always have a bit of patience and wait for Google to fix the Preference setting, so you can have your nice, suggestion-free search.

But honestly, I can't see why anyone would actively dislike it, certainly not to that extent. Who wouldn't benefit, at least occasionally, from help typing their query faster and spelled correctly?

Martin Porcheron [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

[put at-character here]Ranall
To what Dogpile? – All the major engines: Ask, Live, Google and Yahoo! all have search suggestions on their homepage now. Besides which, if you hate it that much, you can disable it.

KennyB [PersonRank 1]

15 years ago #

Thanks for wasting my time tracking down the bug my wife complained about in her Google search bar.

ANSWER: As you may have noticed, we installed a new Google feature for you. Oh, it's a feature, not a problem. In traditional highhanded computer administrator style, we just forgot to tell you we were going to do it. And we have a web site entry that says you can turn it off and on by URL, and of course THAT doesn't work either.

I've happily used Google for years, but this may be the end. No doubt the programmers are proud of themselves, but I like the old way better, and in any case, I believe in announcing change beforehand, and I believe in having CHOICES.

thist [PersonRank 0]

15 years ago #

[put at-character here]KennyB

Google believes in you not having choices. Just look at what their search has been about for a decade. Single ranked list, with no way of modifying it, altering it, refactoring it, etc. No choices.

Google's belief is simple interface, with Google intelligence / Google-knows-best on the back end. Choice burdens the user, so they take choice away, and make the choices for you. They have said this publicly for years. I don't know why it comes as any sort of surprise.

quet [PersonRank 1]

15 years ago #

Saving the preference settings works for me. However, even though the option to "not provide suggestions" is selected, I still had to press "Save Preferences" for it to stick.

And because I have my cookies deleted when I close FF3, the suggestions will reappear when I open it again. If I leave the cookies alone, the preferences option selections are saved correctly.

With that said, I really like the suggestions so I will leave them on even though I almost always use the FF built in search box with suggestions anyway. And I like how it auto-corrects most misspellings as well. In the end, it saves having to type a few letters with almost every search...good stuff

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

By now, the preference page suggestions setting started working... for testing purposes I was able to disable auto-completion.

Tony Ruscoe [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

Ionut said:

> http://clients1.google.com/complete/search?hl=en&q=query

It's also got its own server too:

Server: Auto-Completion Server

Tony Ruscoe [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

I've got this now too although on my preferences page, this option is still selected:

( ) Provide query suggestions in the search box.
(x) Do not provide query suggestions in the search box.

Saving changes without changing any values does disable the suggestions though. And selecting the other option re-enables the suggestions but reloading the preferences page defaults back to the 2nd option! (Confused yet?)

Ionut Alex. Chitu [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

It should be live at http://www.google.fr and probably other international domains.

KennyB [PersonRank 1]

15 years ago #

Today my Preferences screen shows the Query Suggestions option, and it works as advertised, so I am again a happy camper, yesterday's bump in the road notwithstanding.

Dave Shaw [PersonRank 5]

15 years ago #

I've been using this tool for some keyword research (probably the only use for it?) but noticed that the number of results apparently indexed is always more than the number of results ACTUALLY indexed when you perform the search (maybe about 1-2% different).

Why that be? I assume it could be duplicate content since I think I'm right in saying that Google only looks at and compares meta descriptions once the search has begun and therefore would only omit duplicate content AFTER the search. Does this sound right?

Also interestingly (or maybe not if you don't like keywords), when I did my keyword research, I was looking for variations on one keyword phrase. The variations with the least volume in traffic had the most pages indexed. Odd.

Tomi Häsä [PersonRank 5]

15 years ago #

It's annoying. I know what I'm looking for. I want to select the link from the search results especially when I have visited it before (happens a lot with some searches and I have too many bookmarks for them to be quick enough for me).

R [PersonRank 1]

15 years ago #

Okay this feature is great and all, but now my past searches aren't popping up as suggestions like they used to. Let's say I've searched for "basketball scores in Atlanta" often. It used to be that just me hitting b-a-s would bring up the rest, but now, google is trying to complete it with all these other phrases (but not the one I usually search!). Anyone else having this problem? What a pain.

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

R, so it collides with the normal input box browser history then? (I have that one disabled so I don't see it...)

> It's annoying. I know what I'm looking for. I want to select
> the link from the search results especially when I have visited
> it before

You mean you want an I'm Feeling Lucky feature when clicking on the auto-completion suggestions or (not sure I'm understanding right tho) ...? I kind of think that would be useful sometimes.

Dennis Myers [PersonRank 0]

15 years ago #

How do you kill Google Suggest?

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

Dennis: go to the preferences page (http://www.google.com/preferences?hl=en) and check the "Do not provide query suggestions in the search box" box, then hit Save Preferences.

WKB AZ [PersonRank 0]

15 years ago #

I find this very annoying to have it set as default. Although you can disable it, that only works until you clear your cookies. I see nothing wrong with the way it was before. If you wanted it you could enable it and if you didn't you could disable it. I like to have a choice, that is why I thought it was just fine before.

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

My first verdict after some real usage of the auto-completion: sometimes annoying, sometimes helpful. I'm often using the Google box for all kinds or miscellaneous stuff, like math to trigger the Google calculator; in cases like these, but also other very specific phrases, it's not helpful but slightly obtrusive (e.g. entering "412 * " pops up the box but I just want to enter "412 * 123" – the popout list also won't shut up after initially pressing ESC, it will just re-appear when you continue typing). Especially when you're still thinking about the query while typing but Google's suggestions don't offer anything remotely like what you're after. In other cases, it's already been helpful. For instance, for some more navigatonal queries (though in those cases it would have been nice to have an instant "feeling lucky" too when select the list item), and sometimes when you're not sure how something's spelled. Can't yet decide if the usefulness outweighs the obtrusive cases tho!

Ionut Alex. Chitu [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

I noticed that none of these homepages have Suggest enabled:

http://www.google.com/firefox
http://www.google.com/ig
http://www.google.co.uk + other international domains

Additionally, you can bookmark http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=0 .

Martin Porcheron [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

It would be nice if Google could do something similar to the IE 8 B2/Fx 3 search bar and show history results (from Google Web/Search History) above (or below) the recommended search query suggestions based on your query so far, that would provide the best of both worlds of no suggest (so you can access the input history) and suggest.

GL [PersonRank 1]

15 years ago #

Auto-complete nonsense is extremely annoying. Advanced users can type fast, we know what we're doing, what we're typing and such assinine cr[put at-character here]p is an extreme distraction on the screen when you are a fast user. At least the liberals at google allow an option to @#$% turn it off, but, the option goes away/resets if you clear cookies, an operation which is done often by advanced users. As usual, google is p1ssing off the IT professional world one advanced user at a time, it's been that way for 10 years (look at google image search, still only 20 results per page, no options, no option to turn off the annoying image search result page frame banner etc.) – how can anyone think google understands human factors. Please.

Turtle [PersonRank 0]

15 years ago #

Google – Please turn the damn thing OFF ... it is completely against every minimalist / non cluttered services that your business is built on. And no, it's not OK to have it reset when the buffers are cleared.

Mark C. Grant [PersonRank 0]

15 years ago #

It sucks. When I set my preference to disable auto-complete I expect it to remain disabled. If you dig it, use it, but if you don't, it super sucks. The way it's set up reminds me of a crappy restaurant with the no-smoking section on the other side of the isle from a table of retirees chain smoking, chugging coffee, with a ceiling fan over head. You have the option not to smoke but you might as well or not eat there. It's not effective for both sides of the option (I said option...my bad). Way to have an annoying option that ties our hands. How junky is it that now, if I bail from google, I have to drag my email, and all my passwords out and burn them. Thanks guys.

J. Elinor [PersonRank 0]

15 years ago #

Forced suggestions are quite possibly the dumbest idea Google has ever forced down our virtual throats. HATE IT HATE IT HATE IT. No option to turn it off.....but wait! There is a choice. USE A DIFFERENT SEARCH ENGINE that doesn't treat you like you're too stupid to know what you're looking for! Voila!

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

I've also turned it off for now, because while it was sometimes useful (and mostly not) I had the feeling it made the input box a bit slower, i.e. the time it takes for the search box to receive the cursor input when you load google.com and just want to start typing. I was ending up with queries where the first letter was missing due to this and I had to retype.

Gaurav Astavekra [PersonRank 0]

15 years ago #

Hi

As expected, Google is smart enough, now when google knows that more than 70% users across the web are using Google as Search Engine, Now Google is trying to dominate the search pattern too. Naturally out of its users 50% are prone to use suggested results.i guess.

lets see how it goes.

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