i use browser flock, instant preview its show, but when i used mozilla, it doesn't appear, i know this issue on Tuesday, October 5, 2010 :) great feature! i like it
Dear sirs, perhaps you can write a little bit about the implementation of the setting to disable this evil feature, as the option is so intelligently placed that my meagre mind cannot locate it.
Strange that you mention Opera in the post. Opera is blocked from Google Instant and thus the page previews. When you identify as Firefox, everything seems to work flawlessly however so I can't figure out what the deal is.
Any clue as to why Opera is blocked and when it will be fixed?
Really nice post! Informative and interesting to read about the available options and the reasons for choosing one solution over another. Things like this make me happy...
Well I'm just curious why would anyone want an option to disable it - can't you just not click on the 'magnifying glass' icon? It does not seem like it's adding any overhead to search results page unless you click on it...
@said - turn the feature off by going to google.com. At the right side of the "search" button, you will see "instant is on" link. Click that, and choose "instant is off". Be forewarned, however, that choosing this option will cause the page to update instantly (ironic), reverting to google.com homepage.
Other effects of "instant off" are removal of the submit-the-search-form-as-you-type feature. The browser's default keyboard navigation will also be restored, allowing scrolling via the arrow keys in most browsers.
@artem "Instant off" will appeal to those who favor keyboard navigation for scrolling. This should include many, if not most laptop users. It will also naturally appeal to those who like the search results to not change automatically as they type.
Perhaps a proportion individuals who want "instant" off (which may exceed that which was anticipated by the designers of these features) will figure out how to turn it off.
Only problem with instant search is that when you try to leave the page you get the "Hooba! You've got text in an input field, you sure you wanna leave?"
@Garrett That turns off instant search, not instant previews. I wouldn't have a problem with instant preview if it behaved as described and only activated when the magnifying glass was clicked. The problem is that it activates on any click in a search result, making it impossible to select words by double clicking, or do what I usually do, double click and drag to easily select whole words, without annoying popups appearing.
The previews seem to be a useless gimmick providing no added value. I just want to get rid of them completely.
@mlug Yep you're right about turning instant off -- that doesn't turn off the preview feature.
And you're right about clicking anywhere in the search result to activate the preview. If that is not by design, then it should be changed so that it is activated by magnification only. And when the window is not wide enough then the preview will overlap search results, causing a pretty serious usability problem.
When instant is on, though, their kbd navigation activates focus which activates preview, which also triggers the preview-overlaps-search-results problem.
I agree that clicking a search result should not activate preview -- that action should be taken on clicking the icon only.
I don't like instant, so I can keep it turned off and then won't be bothered by any of the frills.
I agree with @mlug and @Garrett: I wish it would only activate after I clicked on the magnifying glass icon. I also activate it accidentally all the time (by clicking in the white space of a search result), and it does occasionally occlude other search results (not everyone runs on a 30" monitor). :-)
To add to my previous comment... another reason why it surprises me is because the white space of a search result doesn't change your mouse cursor from the default. Usually, only hand cursors will trigger actions. In this case, the default text selection cursor or pointer will trigger the popup.
What the hell is wrong with google these days? They used to be cool.
* They added sidebar which is good only for wasting my screen with useless informaion. Of course UI genius at google are not aware of splitters and "hide/display" buttons.
* Instant search loves to mess with results. Google "I hate", append "you, google". Turn instant search off. OMFG! Shiny ajaxish google failed to pass your most recent search. Be happy with "I hate". Or even more ancient entry if you are lucky enough.
* now this. It wastes my traffic, it wastes my screen once again. Once again genius decided that this feature should not be optional.
I switched to google from yahoo for a reason - yahoo wasted my traffic and screen space just like google do it now.
And for the same reason I'm leaving google for DDG.
great article, with some great insights to how it's all done so quickly.
One questions, when you grab an image do you wait for the page to load on the site then grab the image, or grab the image after x second regardless if the page is loaded or not.
Might be a silly question, but what about browsers that don’t support data: URIs, like IE7 and IE6? Do you use MHTML for that case or do they just not get the Progressive Enhancement goodness that is Instant Previews?
I accidentally stumbled on this feature earlier and I was pleasantly surprised. It's interested that you chose to highlight the relevant content in the instant preview. Well done.
For god's sake, stop turning it on when you click anywhere near the search results, and allow permanent opt-out without signing in with an account. This is Snap.com all over again.
Btw, posting a comment here is ridiculously complicated.
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Please let us turn of the damned thing off. I've gotten to the point that I've switched all my defaults to Bing, and trust me, that's not where I want to be right now.
I am using resolution 1280 X 800 now and Firefox default font size "22". The preview is overlapping and hiding the search results. What good is a search result if I can't see it?
I get that your developers use a high res desktop monitor and don't use keyboard navigation. But who is the feature designed for? Besides your developers?
I have also noticed more than once that the preview comes on mouseover and so when I am reading, my thumb brushes trackpad and the preview pops up and abruptly obscures whatever I was reading or scanning.
Finding search.yahoo.com unreadably small (font-size: 13px), back with google search and now the preview popping up is an advertisement?!
At first I thought it was a bug, but it appears that preview is sometimes and ad and sometimes a preview of the site.
Again, preview gets in the way, overlapping search results when I mouse over (hasn't this been covered enough?). I don't want it. I don't want the ad or the preview and I don't want anything popping up when I click on the search results and I especially don't want anything to pop up on mouseover.
I just want to search, click on a link, go to the site. That's it.
When the ad preview fails to load, a blank, white box is displayed. Either way -- ad or white box -- who in the heck would want something like that?
Who of anybody would want pop-up ads?
With instant off, I am able to use the arrow keys to scroll the window, but still I get the ad preview, not only by clicking the text description in search results text but on mouseover of that text.
Setting `script.src=null` is benign silliness; but features such as this are very harmful to the search page.
Is there any plans for an option for "just search"? Because that's what I want -- no more, no less.
To disable it, you need the greasemonkey add-on, and use a couple scripts to get rid of the annoying stuff. (I've seen google folks say a number of times that you have to click on the magnifying glass - and then no response once someone mentions that you can click anywhere on the search text div) Apparently, none of the developers believe us.
Unfortunately, I'm on a different computer today, so I don't have the greasemonkey scripts I wrote to fix it. I can now see google without the sidebar, star and magnifying glass, and the preview doesn't show up when you click on the search result - it's great, and a much plainer and faster site than the default.
These instant,sugggest and autocomplete creating stuff are nothing more that socialist maneuvers to add more control over what WE can see, search and get. I prefer a plain Search that would take a litle bit more, but will give me the choices I looking for. Beware of this if you want to keep your real freedom of choice.
Can I beseech you guys to turn off the preview? I click anywhere on the text and the preview pops up, HIDING my search result. I do hope you see the idiocy of this?
PLEASE turn it off. Its annoying enough for me to try Bing
@Osseta so, why can't they make 10 calls for the 10 images (jpeg/png, etc...) and 1 extra call for all the snippets and then combine them when displaying? Sounds like overkill, esp. when browsers will aggressively cache images too.
Are we allowed to request previews for our applications via an api... is this the right place to get an example of how to do it? Or is this just telling us how Google have done it for themselves?
i use browser flock, instant preview its show, but when i used mozilla, it doesn't appear, i know this issue on Tuesday, October 5, 2010 :) great feature! i like it
ReplyDeleteAmazing feature, I just love the idea, it will(I think), be great if internal search of sites, incluide it and the instant search!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Google Team!!
Might be a stupid question, but why don't you just return a jpeg from the server?
ReplyDeleteDear sirs, perhaps you can write a little bit about the implementation of the setting to disable this evil feature, as the option is so intelligently placed that my meagre mind cannot locate it.
ReplyDeleteStrange that you mention Opera in the post. Opera is blocked from Google Instant and thus the page previews. When you identify as Firefox, everything seems to work flawlessly however so I can't figure out what the deal is.
ReplyDeleteAny clue as to why Opera is blocked and when it will be fixed?
Really nice post!
ReplyDeleteInformative and interesting to read about the available options and the reasons for choosing one solution over another. Things like this make me happy...
how do i disable it?
ReplyDeleteHow do I disable it?
ReplyDeleteWell I'm just curious why would anyone want an option to disable it - can't you just not click on the 'magnifying glass' icon? It does not seem like it's adding any overhead to search results page unless you click on it...
ReplyDeleteFantastic Feature! Any change of it being released as an api?
ReplyDelete@Martin, did you read the article? It clearly explains why they are not returning images from the server.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to be able to click on the image and be taken to the specific part of the page that has the search result... especially useful for long pages
ReplyDeleteAs always, fantastic information. I already added the timeout and src = null tips to my javascript library.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing!
@said - turn the feature off by going to google.com. At the right side of the "search" button, you will see "instant is on" link. Click that, and choose "instant is off". Be forewarned, however, that choosing this option will cause the page to update instantly (ironic), reverting to google.com homepage.
ReplyDeleteOther effects of "instant off" are removal of the submit-the-search-form-as-you-type feature. The browser's default keyboard navigation will also be restored, allowing scrolling via the arrow keys in most browsers.
@artem "Instant off" will appeal to those who favor keyboard navigation for scrolling. This should include many, if not most laptop users. It will also naturally appeal to those who like the search results to not change automatically as they type.
Perhaps a proportion individuals who want "instant" off (which may exceed that which was anticipated by the designers of these features) will figure out how to turn it off.
Only problem with instant search is that when you try to leave the page you get the "Hooba! You've got text in an input field, you sure you wanna leave?"
ReplyDeleteWhich is totally annoying.
@Garrett That turns off instant search, not instant previews. I wouldn't have a problem with instant preview if it behaved as described and only activated when the magnifying glass was clicked. The problem is that it activates on any click in a search result, making it impossible to select words by double clicking, or do what I usually do, double click and drag to easily select whole words, without annoying popups appearing.
ReplyDeleteThe previews seem to be a useless gimmick providing no added value. I just want to get rid of them completely.
Nice job Matias & team!
ReplyDelete@mlug Yep you're right about turning instant off -- that doesn't turn off the preview feature.
ReplyDeleteAnd you're right about clicking anywhere in the search result to activate the preview. If that is not by design, then it should be changed so that it is activated by magnification only. And when the window is not wide enough then the preview will overlap search results, causing a pretty serious usability problem.
When instant is on, though, their kbd navigation activates focus which activates preview, which also triggers the preview-overlaps-search-results problem.
I agree that clicking a search result should not activate preview -- that action should be taken on clicking the icon only.
I don't like instant, so I can keep it turned off and then won't be bothered by any of the frills.
I agree with @mlug and @Garrett:
ReplyDeleteI wish it would only activate after I clicked on the magnifying glass icon. I also activate it accidentally all the time (by clicking in the white space of a search result), and it does occasionally occlude other search results (not everyone runs on a 30" monitor). :-)
Thanks in advance for looking into this.
To add to my previous comment... another reason why it surprises me is because the white space of a search result doesn't change your mouse cursor from the default. Usually, only hand cursors will trigger actions. In this case, the default text selection cursor or pointer will trigger the popup.
ReplyDeleteWhat the hell is wrong with google these days? They used to be cool.
ReplyDelete* They added sidebar which is good only for wasting my screen with useless informaion. Of course UI genius at google are not aware of splitters and "hide/display" buttons.
* Instant search loves to mess with results. Google "I hate", append "you, google". Turn instant search off. OMFG! Shiny ajaxish google failed to pass your most recent search. Be happy with "I hate". Or even more ancient entry if you are lucky enough.
* now this. It wastes my traffic, it wastes my screen once again. Once again genius decided that this feature should not be optional.
I switched to google from yahoo for a reason - yahoo wasted my traffic and screen space just like google do it now.
And for the same reason I'm leaving google for DDG.
Cool feature....
ReplyDeleteDo we have an api for this??
great,.. love that tech is moving forward,. but how do I turn it off!!! and I how do I turn off the image preview zoomy thingy!
ReplyDeletegreat article, with some great insights to how it's all done so quickly.
ReplyDeleteOne questions, when you grab an image do you wait for the page to load on the site then grab the image, or grab the image after x second regardless if the page is loaded or not.
Might be a silly question, but what about browsers that don’t support data: URIs, like IE7 and IE6? Do you use MHTML for that case or do they just not get the Progressive Enhancement goodness that is Instant Previews?
ReplyDeleteI accidentally stumbled on this feature earlier and I was pleasantly surprised. It's interested that you chose to highlight the relevant content in the instant preview. Well done.
ReplyDeleteFor god's sake, stop turning it on when you click anywhere near the search results, and allow permanent opt-out without signing in with an account. This is Snap.com all over again.
ReplyDeleteBtw, posting a comment here is ridiculously complicated.
like what you wrote, I believe you also like what I would recommend.someday,i find my favoraite shop,in this shop, you can find huge selection ofYour blog is so informative ? keep up the good work!!!!amliya handbags
ReplyDeletePlease let us turn of the damned thing off. I've gotten to the point that I've switched all my defaults to Bing, and trust me, that's not where I want to be right now.
ReplyDelete+1 please turn this off.
ReplyDeleteI am using resolution 1280 X 800 now and Firefox default font size "22". The preview is overlapping and hiding the search results. What good is a search result if I can't see it?
I get that your developers use a high res desktop monitor and don't use keyboard navigation. But who is the feature designed for? Besides your developers?
I have also noticed more than once that the preview comes on mouseover and so when I am reading, my thumb brushes trackpad and the preview pops up and abruptly obscures whatever I was reading or scanning.
I am going to try other search engines.
i love this stuff
ReplyDeleteFinding search.yahoo.com unreadably small (font-size: 13px), back with google search and now the preview popping up is an advertisement?!
ReplyDeleteAt first I thought it was a bug, but it appears that preview is sometimes and ad and sometimes a preview of the site.
Again, preview gets in the way, overlapping search results when I mouse over (hasn't this been covered enough?). I don't want it. I don't want the ad or the preview and I don't want anything popping up when I click on the search results and I especially don't want anything to pop up on mouseover.
I just want to search, click on a link, go to the site. That's it.
When the ad preview fails to load, a blank, white box is displayed. Either way -- ad or white box -- who in the heck would want something like that?
Who of anybody would want pop-up ads?
With instant off, I am able to use the arrow keys to scroll the window, but still I get the ad preview, not only by clicking the text description in search results text but on mouseover of that text.
Setting `script.src=null` is benign silliness; but features such as this are very harmful to the search page.
Is there any plans for an option for "just search"? Because that's what I want -- no more, no less.
I think you should really take it seriously.
To disable it, you need the greasemonkey add-on, and use a couple scripts to get rid of the annoying stuff. (I've seen google folks say a number of times that you have to click on the magnifying glass - and then no response once someone mentions that you can click anywhere on the search text div) Apparently, none of the developers believe us.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I'm on a different computer today, so I don't have the greasemonkey scripts I wrote to fix it. I can now see google without the sidebar, star and magnifying glass, and the preview doesn't show up when you click on the search result - it's great, and a much plainer and faster site than the default.
We love smart engineers!
ReplyDeleteThese instant,sugggest and autocomplete creating stuff are nothing more that socialist maneuvers to add more control over what WE can see, search and get. I prefer a plain Search that would take a litle bit more, but will give me the choices I looking for. Beware of this if you want to keep your real freedom of choice.
ReplyDeleteI'd be interested in knowing what you are using to generate the preview images/thumbnails/screenshots in the first place?
ReplyDeleteCan I beseech you guys to turn off the preview? I click anywhere on the text and the preview pops up, HIDING my search result.
ReplyDeleteI do hope you see the idiocy of this?
PLEASE turn it off. Its annoying enough for me to try Bing
@Osseta so, why can't they make 10 calls for the 10 images (jpeg/png, etc...) and 1 extra call for all the snippets and then combine them when displaying? Sounds like overkill, esp. when browsers will aggressively cache images too.
ReplyDeleteAre we allowed to request previews for our applications via an api... is this the right place to get an example of how to do it? Or is this just telling us how Google have done it for themselves?
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Kelvin said. I would like to access this as an API for use in my own Apps.
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice to have an API to get previews of sites...
ReplyDelete