Ask HN: What is * Instant?

1 pointsdbz15y ago3 comments

Hello! I just moved to a boarding school in vermont and have slow (usually doesn't work) internet access about once a week. What are these new "instant" things? Google Instant? YouTube Instant? ect?

3 comments

3 comments · 1 top-level

sabj15y ago· 2 in thread

It's like the normal version, except very fast!

In the case of Google Instant, results start to show up as soon as you start typing. So if you wanted to find a page about "Vermont," you would see:

v... [results about "v for vendetta," let's say]

ver... [veryfine juice beverages]

vermo... [vermontster ice cream]

vermont... [normal vermont ads].

Kind of like that!

DiabloD315y ago

What I don't understand is, sure, attempted auto-complete on what I'm typing could be interesting, but why does it keep AJAX pulling results when I'm not done yet?

If Google really wanted to help, they'd try to offer additional terms that could help me refine my results (based on, say, my recent search history and search histories of others based on similar terms).

Yes, I'm aware thats a difficult problem to solve, but Google seems to be one of few companies uniquely qualified to tackle such problems.

sabj15y ago

Well, it does that, too. It has auto-complete with suggestions.

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