I’m really starting to like the new Google Suggest function, another gem added to their large bag of tricks. This nifty thing provides auto complete in your web search.

It’s actually quite straight-forward stuff. A condensed JavaScript disables the browser’s auto complete in the search field and defines a hidden div field. The div body is populated at each character while you type. It’s really too fast to be doing a full Google search and postback, so I guess they keep an in-memory list of the most popular searches while using XMLHttpRequest to run queries.

This will not be the last time we see this technique.

While on the topic of search, what about this Desktop Search thing from Microsoft, included in the MSN Toolbar Suite? It feels like just another way to catch up on the innovations from Google and their own Desktop Search technology. I would much rather have Microsoft fix that so-called search function in Windows instead of adding another product doing what the built-in should have done in the first place.

Update: The technique was named Ajax by Jesse James Garrett in February 2005.

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