Google Instant Sucks!
It’s true. It really does. It’s flawed. I like the functionality but part of the implementation is frustrating. Let’s face it, when I saw it for the first time I was like OMGWTFBBQ, but now, not so much.
Going Back
This one’s a simple matter of placing focus in the Search Bar. Often I find myself browsing a site, searching for a keyword, visiting a search result then going back to the site I was originally visiting. For example:
- Browse site A
- Search for “test test”
- Go to first result
- Go back to “test test”
- Go back to site A
This now becomes a nuisance with Google Instant. As soon as you go back from a search result you are focused into the search query box. You need to tab out or click the back button to actually go back to the page before your search results. Often you just end up deleting a character in your query.
Auto Completion
This is just silly. I thought the whole reason of Google Instant is to save time. Often Google’s prediction is pretty damn good. Now I find myself typing part of the search query (because Google already predicted it) and pressing Enter! Instead I find that I’ve ended up searching for my partial search query rather than the prediction. For example, searching for “google maps”:
- Type “google m”
- Press Enter
- Google Mobile?! BUT YOU AUTO COMPLETED GOOGLE MAPS. WTF?!
Instead, pressing Enter should use the autocompleted result (instead of me having to press Right Arrow THEN Enter). If you want to search for the query “google m” you press Escape. OR the other way around…Escape hides the Google Instant box and keeps it’s current prediction state and Enter searches for your incomplete query. Either solution requires just one button press instead of two.
I guess you could ask…why am I pressing Enter at all? If I type “google m” it shows me the results for the predicted text. Well, two reasons: a) I’m too damn used to pressing Enter after my query, and b) I want to get rid of the gigantic Google Instant box that hides at least 2 search results!
Take Me There
Complementing my previous problem (sort of). There NEEDS to be a keyboard shortcut to take me to a result. Be it the first result or result X on the page. So I could:
- Type “google m”
- Press keyboard shortcut to take me to first result
I propose ALT + x (x being the search result number). Time saving? I think so.
Browser Integration
Google Instant needs browser integration ASAP. No doubt Chrome will have some sort of implementation….but I don’t use Chrome, I use Firefox. A possible implementation? Well I’m glad you asked. Pretty simple:
Typing into the Firefox Search Box brings up a new tab with Google Instant results. Typing into the search box works exactly the same way as the Google Instant box….oh and it should have support for choosing a search result with keyboard shortcuts too 
DOM Storage
Initially, Google Instant hated me. When it launched, I simply could not get it to work with Firefox despite disabling all extensions (Safe Mode), clearing cache and cookies! It turns out Google Instant uses DOM Storage. If you happened to use a Firefox extension named BetterPrivacy (which is pretty popular!) you ended up with a broken Google page. Even if you disabled the extension, you’d still have the problem since the extension is simply a frontend for changing a flag in about:config. Either way, why on earth does Google Instant need to use DOM Storage? There’s probably a good reason for this, but surely if DOM Storage fails they could revert to Cookies…or something.
Anyway, for those having this issue:
Error: Permission denied for <https://www.google.com> to get property Window.getComputedStyle from <http://www.google.com.au>.
Error: uncaught exception: [Exception... "Security error" code: "1000" nsresult: "0x805303e8 (NS_ERROR_DOM_SECURITY_ERR)" location: "http://www.google.com/extern_js/f/CgJlbiswRTgBLCswWjgALCswDjgBLCswFzgHLCswJzgELCswPDgALCswUTgALCswWTgOLCswCjh_QC8sKzAWOB0sKzAZOCAsKzAhOD9AASwrMCU4z4gBLCswKjgLLCswKzgRLCswNTgELCswQDgTLCswQTgFLCswTjgGLCswVDgBLCswYzgALCswHThXLCswXDgXLCswGDgFLCswJjgOLIACGZACG/Veq5STkSvqE.js Line: 109"]
You can fix it by:
- Going to “about:config” in your Firefox address bar
- Search for “dom.storage.enabled” and set it to true
- Huzzah. Google Instant.
International
Why the hell can’t Google roll out Instant to international domains at the same time? I want Australian results! There is no excuse for this.
