Google is beta testing a new tool called Google Suggest. 

Basically,  Google Suggest tries to anticipate what you might be looking for and gives you a pull down menu of suggested searches as you type.

The tool is in beta testing now so it is not in widespread use, but I was thinking of what effect this might have on how people search and how our Internet marketing will be affected.

For example, let's say someone is typing the word "travel" in Google Suggest.  Here are the results.  Notice that travelocity is the first suggestion (I wonder if they paid for that) and that, after travel, travel inn and travel lodge are the next two choices.

I wonder if this will affect how people search?  Will they be more likely to choose "travel inn" and "travel lodge" to search for because they are near the top? 

If so, we may need to refocus our search engine optimization and search engine advertising to adjust to the fact that Google may be leading their searches more.

At this time, Google Suggest is only in beta, so there is no need to make changes yet.  But this could be an intriguing future trend to be aware of.

Garland Coulson, "The E-Business Tutor"

Last Updated Sunday, January 23 2005 @ 01:54 PM CST