Google Instant 182
Query expansion
Google applies query expansion to the submitted search query, transforming it into the query that will actually be
used to retrieve results. As with page ranking, the exact details of the algorithm Google uses are deliberately obscure,
but certainly the following transformations are among those that occur:- Term reordering: in information retrieval this is a standard technique to reduce the work involved in retrieving
results. This transformation is invisible to the user, since the results ordering uses the original query order to
determine relevance. - Stemming is used to increase search quality by keeping small syntactic variants of search terms.[22]
- • There is a limited facility to fix possible misspellings in queries.
"I'm Feeling Lucky"
Google's homepage includes a button labeled "I'm Feeling Lucky". When a user types in a search and clicks on the
button the user will be taken directly to the first search result, bypassing the search engine results page. The thought
is that if a user is "feeling lucky", the search engine will return the perfect match the first time without having to
page through the search results. However, with the introduction of Google Instant, it is not possible to use the button
properly unless the Google Instant function is switched off. According to a study by Tom Chavez of "Rapt", this
feature costs Google $110 million a year as 1% of all searches use this feature and bypass all advertising.[23]
On October 30, 2009, for some users, the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button was removed from Google's main page, along
with the regular search button. Both buttons were replaced with a field that reads, "This space intentionally left
blank." This text faded out when the mouse was moved on the page, and normal search functionality is achieved by
filling in the search field with the desired terms and pressing enter. A Google spokesperson explains, "This is just a
test, and a way for us to gauge whether our users will like an even simpler search interface."[24] Personalized Google
homepages retained both buttons and their normal functions.
On May 21, 2010, the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man, the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button was replaced with a button
reading the words "Insert Coin". After pressing the button, the user would begin a Google-themed game of Pac-Man
in the area where the Google logo would normally be. Pressing the button a second time would begin a two-player
version of the same game that includes Ms. Pacman for player 2. This version can be accessed at
http://www.google.com/pacman/[25] as a permanent link to the page.Rich Snippets
On 12 May 2009, Google announced that they would be parsing the hCard, hReview, and hProduct microformats
and using them to populate search result pages with what they called "Rich Snippets".[26]Special features
Besides the main search-engine feature of searching for text, Google Search has more than 22 "special features"
(activated by entering any of dozens of trigger words) when searching:[8][9][27]- weather – The weather conditions, temperature, wind, humidity, and forecast,[8] for many cities, can be viewed by
typing "weather" along with a city for larger cities or city and state, U.S. zip code, or city and country for smaller
cities (such as: weather Lawrence, Kansas; weather Paris; weather Bremen, Germany). - stock quotes – The market data[8] for a specific company or fund can be viewed, by typing the ticker symbol (or
include "stock"), such as: CSCO; MSFT; IBM stock; F stock (lists Ford Motor Co.); or AIVSX (fund). Results
show inter-day changes, or 5-year graph, etc. This does not work for stock names which are one letter long, such
as Citigroup (C) or Macy's (M) (Ford being an exception), or are common words, such as Diamond Offshore
(DO) or Majesco (COOL).