It may be news that appeals only to the most devout analytics enthusiasts in the first instance, but Google's latest technical experiment could have ramifications for those with the mildest of interests in speedier search results too.In today's modern world, speed matters, but in the world of internet search results, a millisecond difference in display time can give a company the edge. That's precisely the upper hand that Google seeks to secure, and with its latest technological adaptation, it's likely the search engine has just made such a development.
Google's hunger to display search results faster has two main benefits: on one hand, users are presented with a much friendlier, speedier way of searching. On the other, the faster search results are displayed, the more ad space Google has to sell.
CNET News reports that Google plans to use: "JavaScript programming language and the related Ajax interface technology, not just regular HTML, to display the information." Citing Google rep Eitan Bencuya, CNET explains how: "with the Ajax-enhanced search results, JavaScript is used to load the actual search results beneath the unchanging boilerplate above, a tactic that means only the search results need to be loaded on subsequent searches."
Bencuya concludes: "These guys are working to make things milliseconds faster," and millisecond time saving is potentially big business to a company like Google.
While this may mean little to the average web user, it means significantly more to Google. At the I/O Conference in May 2008, Vice President of Search Products and User Experience, Marissa Mayer, explained: "As Google gets faster, people search more, as it gets slower, people search less." The faster the search results, the more paid search ads can appear during an independent search.
The physical technology behind Google's remarkable display return speed is potentially some hundreds of thousands of servers worldwide, with between 700 and 1000 used on any one query, as revealed by Google Fellow Jeff Dean at the I/O Conference '08.
Let's hope Google has a firm grasp of the mantra 'more haste, less speed' when it comes to rolling out its plans for an Ajax overhaul.
