Google is killing a 7-year-old feature that gave instant search results while you typed (GOOG)

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Google is killing Instant Search, the smart feature that gives users search results while they are still typing, according to a statement given to Search Engine Land.

Instant Search launched in 2010, when Marissa Mayer was leading the Search team at Google. She deemed the introduction of the feature to be a "fundamental shift in search," and claimed that if everyone on the planet used it, it would save about 3.5 billion seconds a day, or 11 hours every second, according to a report Wired wrote at the time.

Apparently, the reason why Instant Search is going away is that over 50% of users do their searches on mobile rather than desktop, so its usefulness is seemingly reduced.

Google Instant Search

Here is Google's full statement:

"We launched Google Instant back in 2010 with the goal to provide users with the information they need as quickly as possible, even as they typed their searches on desktop devices. Since then, many more of our searches happen on mobile, with very different input and interaction and screen constraints. With this in mind, we have decided to remove Google Instant, so we can focus on ways to make Search even faster and more fluid on all devices."

The feature was never live on mobile, either on Google's app or through web browsers. But now, even if you type something on a web browser on desktop, search results will only be delivered when the user hits the enter key.

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