Google March 8 made its Instant Previews search snippets technology available on mobile smartphones and tablets running Google’s Android 2.2 and Apple’s iOS 4.0 and later versions of each platform.
Available since last November, Google Instant Previews lets users visualize results before they click on them to save time. The technology builds on the Google Instant predictive search technology the company created to make search speedier for users.
Instant Previews is another stab at boosting search efficiency. Users type in a query using Google Instant and Instant Previews provides a snapshot of a search result, highlighting the most relevant sections in less than one-tenth of a second.
Users will click once on the magnifying glass next to the title of any search result to pop out a visual overview of the page on the right. The tool is especially useful for discerning searchers who have an idea of what content they’re hunting for.
Now Instant Previews is available for Apple’s iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, as well as Android gadgets, such as the Motorola Atrix 4G and Motorola Xoom tablet, in 38 languages.
“Perhaps you’re looking for an article, a step-by-step instructions list, or a product comparison chart — with Instant Previews, you can easily spot pages with the right content without having to navigate back and forth between Websites and search results,” said Brian Ngo, a software engineer for Google’s mobile search team.
Android and iOS device users who want to try Instant Previews can search Google.com and tap on the magnifying glass next to any search result.
A side-by-side comparison view of the Web page previews for the first page of search results will slide out to the right. The user may then tap on a preview to go to the Website.
Ngo said Google will also show previews of mobile Web pages, when they are available. See Google’s mobile Instant Previews demo here.