End of longtails? Is google instant going to kill all small players?

[Mike Anthony]

While I don't think it has to be a death knell those who are saying that its much ado about nothing don't understand the OP. He's talking long tail. By characteristic these get less searches per month. If even 20 percent of searchers for a term decide to go with a suggestion it does affect the strategy of targeting that particular phrase and if you have already invested in targeting it it certainly is not nothing.

Got to agree with the post about building a real web presence though. In all these discussions about web traffic too often we forget about return traffic. You don't get that if you have some crappy PLR.autoblogging setup. Word of mouth and retrun traffic dampens the effects of any Google change.

[The Artful Surfer]

personally I think it's awful and I have turned it off.

I think, however, if I was doing a research project on something for school it might help me. But most of the time I WANT to make up my own search phrases.

What I don't like about this is how Google is starting to steer our minds! Not trying to be all conspiracy theory, but seriously, I don't like the direction this is taking. It's ripe for abuse. Like one poster said above, a lot of negative stuff pops up for certain search phrases. Torrent, keygen, crack, scam, blah blah. What if someone didn't know what a crack was? I'm sure Adobe and other software companies are really happy about that.

Either way, not so sure this is going to fly very well.

[Social-Media-Marketing]

I don't think that long-term, this is going to be an issue. I think people will play around with this for a while since it's new to see what is being suggested. I did it when Google first started showing suggestions in a dropdown without showing instant results. But after a week or two, I rarely looked at the dropdown.

I go to Google to find stuff or to find answers. I know what I'm after. I know how I think I can find it. So I type in a search phrase that I already have in mind. I'm not going to type 'e' and see what pops up.. then type 'm' to have 'em' and see what pops up... etc.

I see this more as help for people who don't know how to spell something or don't know exactly how to find what they are looking for. But I'd be willing to bet that 95+% of the searches on the web are from people who know ahead of time how to find what they are looking for in which case, this product will not affect their search phrase or results.

[Vcize]

There are clearly some people in this thread confusing Google Instant with Google Search Suggestions.

I agree, google instant is really, really bad for longtail keywords. Even as someone that is in the business I am tempted to just start looking at the results after typing a couple words.

[paulgl]

Originally Posted by bgmacaw

I think Google may have outsmarted themselves with this one. I see it having a negative impact on their earnings and search result quality and diversity unless they make significant adjustments. For example, I was searching for some medical info this morning and it was getting in the way more than helping.

It may not be their "Bob" but they're certainly due for one. That's just the kind of thing that happens when you get a bunch of really smart but consumer clueless people together on a project.

LOL! How many times has MS jumped the shark? Google has been smart enough
to ditch things quick and move on.

It does get in the way for "experienced" searchers. What is the percentage of
experienced to novice?

Google instant is very related to search suggestions. You instantly see results
of the top search suggestion. Search results with every letter! You can't separate them
unless you turn it off.

Paul

[backspace9]

I don't link this feature, I am going to be disabling it in the near future. Google Instant = ANNOYING..

Anyone with me?

[Mangozoom]

Hey Everyone

I am a little guy compared to some of the big cheeses on this thread.

But guess what I already figured out how to get a number one position on Google in hours using GI ... cant deny it might impact some of my existing sites but the future is looking bright as far as i am concerned

John

[TheMarketingGuy]

I bet more than 75% of the people using Google don't really look at the screen while they're typing...

[Amod Oke]

Speed is actually what matters while searching on G (which is why G created this thing anyway), but dont you get it. Instant will kill itself. Yes, google wont remove it now, but its not going to be liked too much by people.

Why?
1) It's irritating that Google assumes what users want.
2) "Suggestions" were fine, but "presuming what i want", takes my control away.
3) Its not perfect. It will never be. There are gazillion words beginning with m-a-----

Still i think this wont affect us affiliates or marketers. Why? Coz there are 2 types of people on G, one who know 'what' they want to see in the search, (for e.g. I wish to visit the Yamaha site, I just type y-a-m-a in Instant and yamaha's at the top and thats it)
And the other half are searching for answers/reviews/info/detailed info (long-tail words)/etc. type of searches, and these people ARE going to type the entire phrase no matter what G brings up.

How do i know that? Check it yourself. Go to G and pretend you are searching for something 'detailed' maybe say a manual for some particular widget, or some "particular site's" review of a product. You ARE going to type more than a-b-c-d.

Peace,
Amod

[kschmandt]

I have not messed with Google Instant much as my satellite connection is to slow for it. I wonder though...will it bring up "longtail" results sooner? Isn't the idea behind instant that it produces results based on what it thinks you want? So if it figures out that you want info on "risks associated with tacking a bladder" when you have only typed "bladder ris" I would assume that there is a chance that the little guy with the long tail keyword placement might get found.

I am no expert on SEO but I would guess that someone will figure out a way to exploit Google Instant and we will be seeing another info product within a few months

[Mangozoom]

I am expecting to see a negative impact on some keywords however my tests have already shown me there are opportunites as well ... I discovered a keyword using it and got an immediate number on position on a phrase with 5400 global search per month.

John

[Mangozoom]

My testing has shown me that there are some new opportunities as well ... I have already seen a great result!

[David Bleidt]

Nice to see that you guys test this new feature too.
I also figured out new ways to handle Google Instant and I see some benefits due to it. We have to be patient and see what will happen.

Reptor

[seoforu]

I agree long tails keywords are gone.

[JackPowers]

Google Instant sucks! The screen constantly updating and flickering, makes you want to get away from the Google search page as fast as possible. Why the heck does Google think I want to see suggestions for 10 different things before I type out my query? Very annoying and I really hope they will rework it or remove it.

From an SEO view, this is bad news for lots of smaller sites, but not unexpected. Google has been showing their intent for some time now with the Mayday and Caffeine updates that they will focus more on domain authority and trust for long tail phrase.

This update is going to make it more difficult. A lot more people are going to go after the big keywords to capture that 'suggestion' traffic.

[David Bleidt]

Originally Posted by JackPowers

Google Instant sucks! The screen constantly updating and flickering, makes you want to get away from the Google search page as fast as possible. Why the heck does Google think I want to see suggestions for 10 different things before I type out my query? Very annoying and I really hope they will rework it or remove it.

I don't think they will remove it because I already many people like this new feature. Of course it will change something to IM but I don't think it will be much. I took the time and wrote an eBook and I am giving it away for free. Maybe you will read some interesting infos there.

Last but not least I think we all have to live with this new feature and try to do the best out of the situation. Let's see what the future will be.

Reptor