Google Suggest is a technology tour de force

Mark Gibbs' Web site tips, plus network applications news headlines

Despite the Web's apparent maturity (or at least its apparent coming of age), it continues to spawn new products and services at an amazing rate. This is because the Web is such a complex system that few people really have a handle on just how fast its technologies and tools are evolving.

By way of example, I wrote recently about Google Maps, which arguably redefines a service that many thought couldn't be much improved upon. Well, there's another Google service that hasn't received much coverage but which turns out to be a profound technology demonstration. The service is Google Suggest (see editorial links below).

Google Suggest is, at least on the surface, simple: It provides an auto-completion service as you enter a search term in Google. A list of possible queries that start with the text you've entered is displayed and changes as each new character is entered. Press the down arrow and the selected suggestion will be inserted in the search field.

To continue reading, register here and become an Insider. You'll get free access to premium content from CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, and Network World. See more Insider content or sign in.

Despite the Web's apparent maturity (or at least its apparent coming of age), it continues to spawn new products and services at an amazing rate. This is because the Web is such a complex system that few people really have a handle on just how fast its technologies and tools are evolving.

By way of example, I wrote recently about Google Maps, which arguably redefines a service that many thought couldn't be much improved upon. Well, there's another Google service that hasn't received much coverage but which turns out to be a profound technology demonstration. The service is Google Suggest (see editorial links below).

Google Suggest is, at least on the surface, simple: It provides an auto-completion service as you enter a search term in Google. A list of possible queries that start with the text you've entered is displayed and changes as each new character is entered. Press the down arrow and the selected suggestion will be inserted in the search field.

So Google Suggest is obviously pretty useful but it doesn't appear to be anything extraordinary. Looks can be deceiving.

It turns out that underlying the user interface is some amazingly slick and creative technology. When you realize that the Web user interface is communicating with the mothership (i.e. the back-end Google Suggest service) at each keypress and an optimized suggestion list is generated in near real-time, you start to grok the sheer coolness of what's going on. But wait! There's more...

Chris Justus, a Web server technology aficionado, dissected Google Suggest in an article on his blog last year and he was very impressed with what Google achieved. He writes: "My shock and awe goes further in terms of how nice this interface works ... That the suggestion list lines up perfectly with the query input field... The high-lighting of the additionally suggested text (I type "fa", it suggests "fast bugtrack" and highlights the "st bugtrack" so that the next character I type wipes out its suggestion... beautiful...) ... The great handling of keypresses (cursors up and down...)"

Check out Chris's article; he provides a well-commented version of the original compressed JavaScript that drives the user interface but as he notes in his follow up: "The true technology ... is the incredible back-end search / server technology." Even so, Google Suggest is still way cool.

Read more about software in Network World's Software section.

Mark Gibbs is a consultant, author, journalist, columnist and blogger.