The Final Step

In September last year Google speeded up searching by introducing Google Instant, which displays possible search results before you have finished typing your query. Typically a search lasts 25 seconds: 9 seconds of typing, 1 second for Google to receive, process and display results and 15 seconds for the user to browse the results. Google Instant reduced this average search time by 2-5 seconds.

Google Instant Pages aims to make searching faster again. It uses the history it keeps of your browsing to predict which link you will select from the results. It starts loading that predicted page in the background before you have even clicked on it.

You can control if Google Instant is on or off by visiting your Preferences page. Google Instant is also available as a beta feature on Android 2.2+ and iOS4+. You can turn it on by tapping on the Instant link on the Google.com home screen.