• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, September 9, 2010

Those who didn't listen to the Webcast or attend the press event might not know Google Instant integrates work from Google engineers that began years ago and got shelved. The work began on experimenting with partial queries, feedback as words get typed into the search box, and predictive text. The tool built in Ajax borrowed features from personalization, Google Squared, real-time search, Caffeine Index, Google Suggest, auto complete, and spelling correction.

Google Instant also relies on a bit of "psychic element," according to Google VP of Search Marissa Mayer. While it takes 25 seconds to conduct a search, people spend 24 seconds typing and thinking. It's those 24 seconds that Google set out to optimize.

Google wanted to provide search results with every letter typed, estimating that the average query is 20 characters long. But early prototypes that show results as queries get typed into the search box proved too distracting. When bugs were fixed and timing corrected Google employees began testing the tool. Search has been a simple HTML page, but Google Instant turns it into an Ajax application for a variety of browsers. The company did it with Gmail and Maps, and now with search.

Seth Dotterer, director of marketing at search agency Conductor, believes the Ajax-based results seem more developed now compared with just nine to 12 months ago. Dotterer believes the keyword ordering will change search volume queries as first keywords results will determine subsequent words. He suggests keeping an eye on how brand and company keywords rank in queries, especially if your campaign strategy depends on longer-tail terms.

Shoot for the long tail to potentially grab every search along the way, suggests Level343 Founder Gabriella Sannino, who thinks Google Instant will bring better search results for users and tighter results for optimizers, Using "organic SEO company for small business," SEO campaign managers have the potential to hit "SEO," "SEO company," "SEO company for business," "SEO company for small business," "organic SEO." and the final long-tail terms. "SEO isn't dead," she says. "It's evolving."

Andy Beard says it won't change search for possibly 20% of searches. The vast majority of searches are by people who can't type and are not expert searchers. They probably make up the least less total queries because each search query they actually interact with will likely become more accurate with the improved suggestions feature.

"This will tend to push the query space a little away from header-term searches and into the mid-tail, between two and three search terms, plus a heavy use of search suggestions," Beard says. "It will reduce the number of crazy long-tail searches. Mid-tail queries are generally quite competitive for advertisers, and it could give Google a slight boost. People will actually see more ads before they stop typing and make a selection."

Prioritizing searches can reduce the average cost per search, according to Google. J.P. Morgan Analyst Imran Khan doesn't believe Google Instant will have an impact on monetization rates. Khan explains in a research note the product will have a limited impact on advertisers. "All of the ads typically associated with the suggested search appear as normal as the query is being entered," he writes. "No changes have been made to serving or ranking. Although the constant updates to the results page may result in more ads served as a person types a query, this should only impact CTRs not the number of clicks as a user will not likely click on an ad until the appropriate results appear."

Fortune ran a piece highlighting excerpts from analysts' reports. Most think Google Instant will drive growth in advertising revenues and search market share. The ability to predict the information the person searching on the query wants could help.

Here's a behind the scenes look at the making of Google Instant.