Thursday, September 09, 2010

Google Instant & Google Scribe for Writers

By Jason Boog on GalleyCat, Sep 08, 2010


Today Google unveiled Google Instant and Google Scribe, two auto-type functions that will change the way we write and search online. Google Instant automatically fills in search text as you type--the particular author, publisher, or publishing news site you seek will magically appear before you even press enter.

Google Scribe utilizes the same predictive text technology as a typing tool. You can write your next novel or email, allowing Google to guess what you will write next.

Google-savvy writer Robin Sloan tweeted a Google Scribe-written story: "'The knight rode to their website and buy this product again and again and again.' First 3 words by me; rest by [Google Scribe]." He concluded: "Google Scribe is like, the first Surrealist web-app." What do you think?

Here's more from Google: "Our key technical insight was that people type slowly, but read quickly, typically taking 300 milliseconds between keystrokes, but only 30 milliseconds (a tenth of the time!) to glance at another part of the page. This means that you can scan a results page while you type ... seeing results as you type helps you formulate a better search term by providing instant feedback. You can now adapt your search on the fly until the results match exactly what you want. In time, we may wonder how search ever worked in any other way."

And here's the Daily Beast's take on it:

Google Unveils 'Instant' Search


No need to click the "search" button any more: Google unveiled "Google Instant" on Wednesday--a tweak to its search engine that streams in results as you type and tries to predict what you're searching for. Basically, you'll never have to leave the Google.com page. For now, the feature only works if you're signed in with a Google account. Gawker's Ryan Tate admires the product but says "it's got the potential to alienate some of the site's 1 billion users."

Read it at Gawker

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