"Google Suggest" now in effect?

A couple of months ago, it was announced on the Webmaster World forum that a "Google Suggest" was in BETA. I have just noticed that it is now being implemented in some searches.

What it does is this: If you go to the Google Search home page and start to type in a word, a dropdown appears and makes "suggestions" for you.

Such as, I was going to type in the word "metal."

I typed the "m" and a dropdown appeared with these suggestions... Magazines...Maxxis...Maps

(I tried to post this on the WWforum, and it was held for review)

 

Carol K, I assume you are using Windows and Internet Explorer? This is just the "history" kicking in -- it's not specific to Google or any search engine and it's local to your computer until you do something to clear it.

 

THis is very new to me???? explain???

 

What is there to explain?

 

Google Suggest BETA - google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en

Apparently, I'm not allowed to post live links until I have 10 posts.

 

I've used it a few times - it's an interesting tool but I'm not sure I can see what it could be used for... I guess maybe to help people narrow their searches?

 

Yep. I think its from browser history. You could try this for msn too.

As far as i know google suggest is seperate and wont be combined to main search.

Regards,
Tuning

 

So you're saying that the suggest tool from Google only uses your history of searches?

 

No it does not use your history of searches. Google already knows the frequency of popular searches - much like wordtracker.com and displays this number alongside the phrase your typing in. The low frequency phrases do not show up saving google a lot of computation because the high frequency search is already in a cache for delivery to you.

It's very very cool javascript and worth a read from here.
http://serversideguy.blogspot.com/2004/12/google-suggest-dissected.html

 

Thanks Sadcox!

 

No. I saying that what Carol K saw has nothing to do with Google search.

Type anything you like into the address bar of Internet Explorer (www.a ...) and you'll see a drop-down box with previously entries that start with www.a which changes as you type more letters. This will work in ANY text box on an IE page for ANY website. Nothing to do with Google or Google search specifically.

 

Now I'm definitely confused. So Google uses previously typed keywords from users all over the world?

So if I typed into Google the keyword "klsadgjhaskdghi ikgh a " then it would start to come up on the keyword suggestion when I started typing those characters?

 

Only on your computer. What Carol described is on the main page of Google and has nothing to do with Google Suggest Beta -- it's something resident on Windows computers, on your computer -- only you or someone using your computer will see that particular list in the drop down box.

 

To clarify, the Google suggest feature does record your Google search term and if a high ferquency/common term Google Suggest will use it in searches from other people as a suggestion -- see post by sadcox above.

The example you gave ("klsadgjhaskdghi ikgh a ")is not a high frequency one so it's unlikely you'll see that as a Google Suggest term. But yes you will see it on your personal computer as you start to type "k", "kl", "kls"... and that has nothing to do with Google but is a Windows feature.

 

Nope!

It was my reply to this :

To clarify your doubt try this.

go to main google site and type in two or three words of alphabet Z
then again go to main site and type Z, you will see the list of previously typed words.

But in case of real Google Suggest you will get the exact terms related to "Z", that is more searched.

Regards,
Tuning

 

I understand the autocomplete in the browser window but I was getting wires crossed with the Google Suggest Beta.

Thanks for the clarification.

 

pretty interesting tool. It's useful if you can't spell a certain word. Does it become sort of a dictionary ?

 

Wow, this turned into a nice thread. Anyway, I was using the Firefox Google Search Start page and, yes now, I realize it is a dropdown from past history. I just don't remember doing a search for those keywords.

Google Suggest is an interesting tool, but I'm not anxious for it to get out of BETA, because most of the time my pages are found for "specific keyword phrases."

For example, say my page is getting pulled up for only "Brooklyn, New York" And the user starts to type a "B" "r" .... and "Brooklyn" would appear in the dropdown but the word "New York" would not be there, so my page would not get pulled up.

It is a useful tool for people who can't spell, but, it would also limit the amount of keyword phrases being used.

 

the 'google suggest' and what drops down in a normal search are 2 different beasts.
the normal search uses your history, the 'google suggest' is different.
I think the 'google suggest' does have it's uses - for one it shows you number of search results without having to actually run the search.