Google Instant goes mobile for Android and iPhone

Those clever boys and girls at Google have done it again, making the Google Instant real-time search engine available for Android 2.2 and iPhone iOS 4 handsets.

Google Instant for Mobile is supposed to be available only in the US, but you can have a go with it right now by logging onto an account with the language set to US English, and pointing your browser to google.com instead of google.co.uk, according to The Inquirer. We can't see it taking too long for it to be officially released here in the UK. 

The beta version is opt-in, so to try it out you need to tap the Google Instant Turn On link beneath the search box. The search works exactly the way it does on the desktop, taking what you've typed, predicting what's likely to come, and delivering real-time results.

Results for the first prediction will appear automatically, and tapping on other predictions will show those results accordingly. Press enter or the search button and it'll skip predictions and find exactly what you've typed, as usual. Below is a video of the mobile application in action.

Simply watching this mobile phone demonstration, we can already see some potential problems. For instance, on a small screen you only see a limited selection of results, even if you start scrolling down, making the prediction a little redundant.

Also, you'll need 3G and Wi-Fi to make the most of this feature -- slower connections would make it far too frustrating to bother with. Since wireless connections also fluctuate, Google lets you turn off Instant from the page.

Nevertheless, it is impressive tech. "We're pushing the limits of mobile browsers and wireless networks," said Google's Steve Kanefsky.

"You will probably notice a big improvement in speed when you search thanks to a new AJAX and HTML5 implementation for mobile that dynamically updates the page with new results and eliminates the need to load a new page for each query."

Image credit: MyGadgetNews