[edanm]

"I don't need search results that update live as I type. I need to find what I'm looking for."

You need to find what you're looking for faster. For you, that only means more relevant results, since (this is a guess) you're a quick typist. For slower typists, this kind of instant search could save a lot more than 500ms. It can save them 30 seconds, maybe even a minute.

It might also help teach people how to search. There's obviously some "art" to choosing the right search phrase, and this kind of "search as you type" can help people learn by doing in a way that's much better than before.

[dedward]

Even for fast typists - speed and response time affects your perception of the site subconsciously. The faster and more realtime it seems the more you are going to like it, even if you aren't sure why, or don't even think about it. You may not even realize why if asked why you like it better - but the statistics and studies are there and are solid - so this is likely a very good move on google's part.

[uxp]

The first few searches I queried google for this morning didn't have this instantaneous result feature. This afternoon, it did, but I didn't notice it until I actually became frustrated when I would change a query and click "search", and the results didn't change. It took me a minute to actually notice how the results were dynamically changing under me.

It may take a day or more to get used to, but it really does speed up the workflow.