Figure 1: Once upon a time: Google Suggest with results counts Google Suggest is one of those wonderful features that makes Google irresistible. Ever noticed that as you start to type a query, Google provides the top queries which start with what you’ve typed?
Initially introduced as a Google Labs experiment in 2004, Google introduced Google Suggest to the masses in 2008. By March 2009, Google Suggest was available worldwide. Over time, Google has improved Google Suggest – bolding search terms, adding navigational links and integrating spelling corrections.
The annoying Google Suggest regression
There has, alas, been one significant regression: Google removed result counts in May 2009, saying we didn’t seem to want them. No complaints here, however, as Google still provided results counts to those who wanted them, as long as you knew where to look.
Yet I’ve noticed that some time this past week Google stopped supplying results counts in the returned data – and I admit that makes me sad. Google employees often note how much Google is a data driven company. I just wish they’d share more of their data. After all, if we’re doing the searches, isn’t our data too?
Hopefully the lack of returned counts is only a temporary glitch, but I fear this will not be the case.
Google Suggest Timeline
- 10 December 2004 · Google Labs launches Google Suggest
- 25 August 2008 · Google Suggest leaves Google Labs and is integrated into the main web search query form
- 8 September 2008 · Google changes data retention policy relating to Suggest
- 31 March 2009 · Google Suggest goes international – 51 languages on 155 domains
- 20 May 2009 · Google suggest is integrated into search results query form. Navigational, personal and Sponsored link suggestions introduced. Result counts are removed.
- 12 November 2009 · Google introduces universal search features, like weather, in Google Suggest
- 26 March 2010 · Google Suggest is now in 50 languages across all 170 domains (we seem to have lost a language somewhere along the way).
- 16 April 2010 · Google suggest becomes local aware, at least for metro areas in the US.
- 6 June 2010 · Auto spell correction integrated in Google Suggest
- July 2010 · Google no longer returning search result counts, not even behind the scenes
Update 2011-02-04: corrected Google Suggest release date
Similar Posts:
- Google Autocomplete, née Google Suggest, the Precursor of Google Instant
- Invasion of the results snatchers: The Many Ways Google+ invades Google Search (and how to learn to love it)
- Unofficial documentation of Ask’s Web Search API
- Google Instant Changes Little – and Some SEO Considerations using the Italian ABCs
- Google Analytics enabling Site Speed Report for all users
Registration is now open for the next SEO Course (May 14 and 15) and Google Analytics Course (May 9 and 10) in Milan. Don’t miss the opportunity!
Sean Carlos is a web marketing consultant & teacher, assisting companies with their Search (SEO + PPC = SEM), Social Media & Digital Media Measurement strategies. Sean first worked with text indexing in 1990 in a project for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Since then he worked for Hewlett-Packard Consulting and later as IT Manager of a real estate website before founding Antezeta in 2006. Sean is an 
Some of my customers call it the “end of SEO” because a lot of people will realize the long tails that they are not currently targeting, but I see it as an opportunity to get more customers… who usually would not thinks about adding the additional keywords.
I personally do not mind that Google suggest no longer shows the number of results, in reality I found it did not have much added value, neither for the users nor the SEO practitioners.