Yesterday, via live webcast, Google announced some changes to their search offering. In short, Google Instant was born, a system where the search results are loaded before you finish typing a word. It’s all centred around Google Suggest and the terms that the search giant predicts you are looking for.

While it launched in the US yesterday after the webcast, logged in users in the UK will be able to experience it within the next week.

If you want a play with Google Instant, visit Google.com. Here’s a quick video overview of it…

What does this mean for brands?

Brands need to realise that the big difference to the user in this incarnation of search is the fact that they may have gone into Google to search for a specific term, but Google Instant could massively influence the search term they end up using. A keyword distraction effect.

For Google this is all about the importance of speed - ie the time it takes the user to type a term, see the results and choose the listing they want. People are surprisingly adaptable when it comes to online and are keen to embrace anything which could make their life easier or more interesting. So whilst many are already saying they don’t like it, I’m not sure it’s going to cause a dent in Google’s massive monopoly of search!

So what does all this mean for search engine marketers?

In our opinion it’s going to mean a different type of keyword research for any search project. Previously, you may have looked at a range of keywords and decided on the ones for optimising (or bidding on, in PPC) based on volumes of searches, competition, cost and obviously relevance. Now, a key factor to take into account in addition to all of these is what search terms Google Suggest serves before you’ve even finished typing your search term.

Let’s look at an example from one of our clients’ industries: many of their potential visitors go to Google looking to find ‘pregnancy information’, a term which has a high volume of searches. Many pregnancy sites are optimising their sites for this term and competing for it. Now, the first ‘pregnancy{space}’ term Google Suggest pops up with is ‘pregnancy week by week’. This term is completely relevant to the user and they are likely to divert away from their original query and use the results that have already loaded.

The consequence for SEMs is the need to be looking at what ‘distraction terms’ Google Suggest is putting in front of the user and ensuring that their site is optimised for those terms as well.

The long-term effect this might have is, as yet, unknown. Google Instant is on by default, although the user can switch it off, so if it’s here to stay, users will have to get used to it.

Our guess, is that this means the way that people search is going to be more and more important. Previously, you could put your keywords into the search box in any order. This change may mean that as people become accustomed to using Google Instant, they will adjust their search habits and change the order of words to facilitate an easier search experience using Google Suggest and Google Instant. So SEMs need to be watching the trends in their keywords too as search terms rearrange themselves.

It’s going to be an interesting change to Google and one we’ll be following closely.