Brace For "Instant" Backlash

If you are involved in internet marketing in any way, shape or form you know that Google launched "Instant" this week. I've reserved comment on it. I've been playing with it, trying to understand what the impact will be on our PPC and SEO clients. As more and more people experiment with searches, we are seeing some interesting things happened. Most interesting to me, is apparent preference of large brand names in the suggested searches as you type.

Image via CrunchBase

Throughout Google's life, they have always been successful (and gotten wealthy) by not being greedy - a counterintuitive model that is wildly successful. They focused on the end user's needs first, which then drove massive traffic, which ultimately drove massive advertising revenues.

However, I'm starting to wonder if the direction is changing a little bit with this release. FastCompany.com has a quick overview of the super-power brand names that come up when you type in each letter of the alphabet into the new "Instant" search box...

Google Instant Redefines Your ABCs

While "Instant" certainly is all about reducing the time it takes to perform a search, and for the end user to find what they way, the more I play with it the more I see big name brands. The key question is; are the big brands showing up prevalently because that is what user click on most and search for most? Or are we seeing something different...something less than "not evil?" I'm sensing a coming backlash, if not from end users than at least from marketing folks who live and die by "the Goog."

Only time will tell.

In the meantime here is a quick roundup of the reactions to "Instant" that we've been reading...

• Official Google Blog - Search: now faster than the speed of type
• Search Engine Land - Google Instant And The Power Of Suggestion
• Raven Tools - Google Instant Is Not The Terminator
• Search Engine Watch - 7 Reasons Why Google Instant Makes SEO Dead-on Relevant
• Matt Cutts - Thoughts on Google Instant