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Google Evolves Instant Search, Teases Cloud Printing

By Conceivably Tech – Updated Apr 6, 2017 at 10:15AM

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Continued improvements from Google.

An instant preview feature for websites as part of Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) searches has surfaced, and it appears that Google is moving new features into its Chrome browser at an accelerated pace.

Reports around the Internet indicate that Google is playing with an idea to expand its recently Instant Search feature with a preview of websites as soon as you hover over their links. This morning, we noticed a wave of tweets that pointed to those previews, but it seems that -- just like Instant Search -- it is a playground feature at this time that has been made available to a very limited number of users.

According to Google, there are up to 200 experiments running on Google's search engine at any given time, not all users may be exposed to it, and those feature may never be rolled out as a general feature. However, search previews appear to be a reasonable expansion of the Instant Search idea, which may be very useful for users, but may have yet another impact on content providers as well as Adwords advertisers.

There was no information from Google about Search Previews, but common sense suggests that we will be seeing the service within a few weeks as part of Google search. In fact, there may be much more innovation in search technology left than we can imagine at this point, as we are noticing that especially Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and Google are bringing new technologies and new ideas faster to market than ever before. Google recently patented browser cloud sync. Yesterday, Microsoft was granted a patent that would enable meta-text searching across audio documents, which could be, if enabled, a disruptive technology in the search engine market that puts Google under pressure. Conceivably, searching audio may be the next major feature of search engines.

We also expect the integration of cloud services to make their way into our lives more and more. Google recently added a cloud printing option in its Chrome 7 nightly builds, which would allow a computer connected to a Google account to print across the web to a certain printer that is connected -- via a computer -- to the same account.

The feature is currently a labs option, but -- similar to the remoting host feature -- not functional yet. We have recently noticed subtle speed improvements in Google's V8 benchmarks as well as Sunspider and will provide a comprehensive benchmark update with our CT Mark next Monday.

More from ConceivablyTech:

Google and Microsoft are Motley Fool Inside Value picks. Google is a Motley Fool Rule Breakers recommendation. Motley Fool Options has recommended a diagonal call position on Microsoft. The Fool owns shares of Google, and Microsoft. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. True to its name, The Motley Fool is made up of a motley assortment of writers and analysts, each with a unique perspective; sometimes we agree, sometimes we disagree, but we all believe in the power of learning from each other through our Foolish community. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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