After some extensive testing, Google today announced more features to Google Suggest that will make searches go faster. These new features were added after extensive comment by individual users and online marketers and will be gradually rolled out – but should all be available soon.
“Suggestions on the results page” is the first such addition. Before, Google only gave suggestions on searches originating from their homepage. Now, searches from a results page will provide suggestions that relate to the current results page.
Google estimates that 1/4 of all internet searches are simply monthly repeats…personalized suggestions can help you remember that query that worked so well before. Sign in to your Google account and enable the Web History feature to make it work.
If you’re starting to type in a search and Google thinks you are looking for a specific site, it will be listed where you can click on it and go straight there.
Finally, in addition to navigational suggestions, Google will also include sponsored ads if they detect the most relevant results in a search query may include an ad.
A couple other changes: Google will no longer include the result count in the suggestion box and the text of suggestions will be in bold to help searchers more quickly scan the list.
Check out this forum discussion at WebmasterWorld to see what the pros think about these changes.