Some money-making things, besides higher CPC, are highly correlated with "decreased search time" and "better search results". Mainly, the fact that Instant (to some people) makes Google their preferred search engine. I think it's a rather large claim that Instant's main purpose is to change user's search behavior.
The core goal of Google, even as an advertising company, is to provide the best product: search results, and derivatively, your experience getting to those results. While what you are positing might be true, I suspect that core goal of Instant is to provide a substantial edge over Google's competitors.
If I were Google right now, my main concern would be: Other search engine's results are almost as good as ours, and for the large part, "good enough." We need to maintain our competitive edge by creating the best search experience possible: fast, novel [notice more doodles lately?], and with "innovations" features that generate buzz about our edge-cutting.
I'm working on a product that aims to replace Google as users' start pages. The goal has become: How can I make something that gets users to specific results faster than Google does? The answer: For a lot of things, there is no possible way. They've put so much into making their product fast and efficient, which is all you really care about when you're looking for something. I suspect Instant is just another edge they want to have over competitors in a such a valuable market.
In case you're wondering about what I'm making, the goal has actually become: How can the process of searching be commodified?
The core goal of Google, even as an advertising company, is to provide the best product: search results, and derivatively, your experience getting to those results. While what you are positing might be true, I suspect that core goal of Instant is to provide a substantial edge over Google's competitors.
If I were Google right now, my main concern would be: Other search engine's results are almost as good as ours, and for the large part, "good enough." We need to maintain our competitive edge by creating the best search experience possible: fast, novel [notice more doodles lately?], and with "innovations" features that generate buzz about our edge-cutting.
I'm working on a product that aims to replace Google as users' start pages. The goal has become: How can I make something that gets users to specific results faster than Google does? The answer: For a lot of things, there is no possible way. They've put so much into making their product fast and efficient, which is all you really care about when you're looking for something. I suspect Instant is just another edge they want to have over competitors in a such a valuable market.
In case you're wondering about what I'm making, the goal has actually become: How can the process of searching be commodified?