[vaksel]

I think this little change is going to fundamentally change the internet landscape.

a) no more long tail keywords. those people will see an answer before they get to the part of the phrase that makes it longtail(so if you ranked for that 5 term keyword...too bad). i.e. if you rank for "best auto insurance companies", you've now lost all your business to those who rank for "best auto insurance"

b) much faster searching for users = less traffic for you. If you are below the fold...chances are that you are screwed. Why bother reading below the #5 result...if I can just add a few more keywords to narrow my search? Basically the scrolling is going to take me longer, than it is to adjust my search phrase.

c) much more focus on auto-complete. Before you'd see some auto-complete strings, that would show only 2-3 hits a month according to Google. But now this same string might get a few thousand, just because people are automatically shown those results.

Overall I find that it's good for users, good for high ranking websites, and bad for everyone else.

This is going to make the SEO thing much more competitive, since it essentially eliminates the long tail.

[wikyd]

I think the opposite will happen for (a). There are still a ton of users who are not very good at using search engines and only do one or two word queries. Suggestions-as-you-type will teach these users how to search more effectively, I think (esp. given your point (b)).

[ojbyrne]

For me (and I'll admit it perhaps doesn't apply to others), it has almost no effect. I use the firefox search box mostly.

[vaksel]

same, but search box is only good for your first search

[VMG]

a) was also the case previously

a) and b) contradict each other

[vaksel]

a) no...results didn't load automatically. Now as you type you see the results right away.

b) no they don't..,A = natural long tail search, where the person starts off with a long tail string. B = the recurring searches trying to find something