Sep 24, 2010 14:24 GMT  ·  By

Google Instant has been very popular with the users but it seems that it has been even more popular with developers. After its introduction, a number of people set about creating instant searches from everything out there, from Google Maps to iTunes.

One of the most successful and probably one of the first was YouTube Instant. The light-weight instant search page landed its creator a job at the video site.

But now it's got a contender in the form of Listandplay, yet another Google Instant spin-off for YouTube. In a way, it's similar to YouTube Instant, but the emphasis is on playlists and sharing rather than individual videos.

The principle is exactly the same and the spartan interface is certainly simple, though it does need a little getting used to.

Start typing your query and, based on YouTube search suggestions and results, the appropriate video starts playing before you've even finished.

The interface is sleek and looks better than YouTube Instant's, though from an usability point of view, it does have some disadvantages. Whereas YouTube Instant uses the embedded video player, along with the controls the site provides, Listandplay offers its own video controls.

This makes the whole site follow the same visual theem, but it does make it harder to figure out how to do things like turn down the volume or even pause and resume the video.

It also means that you can't skip ahead in a video unless that portion has already loaded, but this could be a limitation of the YouTube API.

The appeal of Listandplay, or at least what the site intends, is to make it super easy for users to create playlists. In this respect, it actually works quite well, though the videos constantly changing as you go through different queries can be annoying.

But if all you want is to create a playlist quickly, then there's hardly a faster way. Any playlist created you can then share with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, via email and so on.