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Google Inc. introduced an experimental search service Friday that automatically suggests queries as a user types search terms.
Called Google Suggest, the service is similar to a feature in Googles main Web search that suggests alternative spellings after a user enters a query. Google Suggest instead works in real time, listing possible search terms in a drop-down menu below the query box.
Google Suggest comes out of Google Labs, the Mountain View, Calif., companys test ground for new services. That means the company has yet to decide whether it will be generally released.
“By offering more refined searches upfront, Google Suggest can make searching more convenient and efficient, because it eliminates the need to type the entire text of a query,” Google representatives said in a statement.
The service also has the potential to direct users to queries they would not have previously considered, Google said.
Google Suggest displays search recommendations based on the popularity of searches conducted on Google.com and not on searches performed by an individual user or from a particular computer, Google said.
Google already shares some of the most popular search terms on Google.com through its Google Zeitgeist site.
In practice, a searcher on Google Suggest who types part of a word, such as “progr,” would begin seeing instant refinements, such as “programming,” “programming languages,” “progesterone” or “progressive,” Google said.
Just last month, Google introduced another Google Labs project called Google Scholar for searching academic sources such as peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports.