Ok so for a while google has had suggestions pop up in the search box while you type in something but now it just does searches while you type. How long has that been going on ?

I am easily impressed probably but I can't believe how fast the results come up. I start typing shutt and stuff for shutter fly comes up then as soon as I hit t I get results for shuttle. (I am looking for a shuttle power supply by the way)

That was just announced this Wednesday. It's called Google Instant. I'm still undecided as to whether I like it or not, but it doesn't really matter because I never actually search at Google.com, just through Chrome's address bar.

Its good some good aspects and some bad aspects.

The search box has disappeared from the bottom of the page. This is the main thing that annoys me with it.
The results are limited to 10 if you use Instant mode.
Suggest is forced on now.

I understand why they've made those changes though. Its still annoying

Google have said that there is a list of offensive words that it will refuse to do the instant search with.

That is a huge problem that they need to fix immediately. The worst example that came out of the announcement was when Irina Slutsky, who was at the event, complained that when you search for her, until you press return the page is completely blank. It doesn't matter if you've typed her entire name, it still thinks you're searching for an offensive term. Hell, when you type "irina sl" you get a blank page. Now, you can still press enter and it'll give you the results, but what if people searching for her think they were on the wrong track and decide to search for something else?

There are other amusing instances of this, like you can type "i love" but "i hate" gives you no results.

Honestly, it irritates me. Fortunately, like Matt, I seldom type in searches on the Google web site proper. Also, when you turn it off (Google has usually been really good about providing options for this sort of thing, with some notable exceptions), it reinstates the bottom search bar.

The thing that this points out to me more than anything else, though, is that people still don't know what that big key above the right shift key does.

The only real way this speeds anything up is for people who type in their search and then click on the "Search" button. Idiots.

Bitt, thanks for pointing out that it could be turned off, (the thought hadn't occurred to me) even though I had to do a Google Search with auto-complete still turned on in order to find out how to do it. (Google Toolbar-->Settings-->Search Settings)

tanstaafl.