Google Instant on Mobile Devices and in Chrome 8

When Google unveiled Instant on its homepage, it promised that the technology would find its way to other Google products and to other platforms. Sure enough, Google has now released Google Instant for mobile phones, right on the heels of the quiet integration of Instant features into the Google Chrome 8 beta.

"In September we announced that we were working to bring Google Instant to mobile, and today we’re making a beta version available to most iPhone and Android devices in the U.S.," Steve Kanefsky, Software Engineer at Google, announced.

"To try it out, go to google.com in your phone’s browser and tap the Google Instant 'Turn on' link beneath the search box," he explained.

Google made it very clear that Instant was coming to mobile platforms "this fall," and today's announcement comes in line with what's been said before.

Google Instant is a great fit for mobile devices

There's a very good reason why mobile platforms have been emphasized; while Instant is great on the desktop, it a lot more useful on smartphones.

The small screens, poor keyboards and slow connections all contribute to Instant being more needed on mobile devices than anywhere else.

Once you turn on the feature, Instant kicks in as soon as you start typing. Suggestions have been available on the mobile site before, but Instant ups the ante.

Instant for mobiles comes with some limitations

Based on what you've typed so far, your location and other factors, Google will show you three predictions on what you want to search for. There are more on the desktop, but the space constraints meant that Google could only show three on mobile devices.

Also because of the limited screen space, you won't see much of the results, even if they are loaded, especially if your phone has a virtual keyboard.

Another limitation has to do with speed. For slow connections, constantly pinging for new results may lead to a slowdown rather than faster results. Still, in most cases the results should come faster since they'll start loading before you've finished typing.

Instant is opt-in and the "Turn on" and "Turn off" links are easily accessible on the main page. Instant is now available for Android 2.2 and iOS 4+ devices only on the main Google.com mobile site if you're using the English interface.

Google.com for mobile is faster thanks to HTML5

What's more, Google says that the speed of the mobile site has been increased overall thanks to the new AJAX and HTML5-based implementation. This means that only the content that changes is being served and the page doesn't have to be reloaded entirely when you alter your query.

Google Instant in Chrome 8 beta

Google has been working on implementing Instant in other places. The Google Chrome 8 beta, launched yesterday, is the first beta release to come with Instant integration in the Omnibox.

The feature is not enabled by default, but is available from the about:flags section. As soon as you start typing, be it a search query or an URL, the first suggestion will start loading, regardless if it's a Google search or a website you visit regularly.

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