For a long time Google has reigned supreme in the search domain, a new, exciting challenger may just have entered the ring.On September 4 1998 the online search field changed forever. Before it there were many and after it there was only one. Before this date people were divided, asking Jeeves or relying upon search sites such as Yahoo, Lycos or Altavista to perform you desired internet search. Then came Google and internet search was never the same again, I can’t think of another search engine that spawned it own verb.

Since that date Google has reigned supreme and all challengers have fallen by the wayside. Google is no longer only a search engine but a fully fledged corporation with a diverse product portfolio ranging from the provision of email and an office suit to a mobile operating system and upcoming desktop variant. To the despair of corporate giant Microsoft, their Live search could not compete and quickly became as good as obsolete.

This year Microsoft threw a counter punch with its new search service, Bing which is currently still in beta but has promised some big things. Of everything I have seen of Bing to date, nothing has looked as intuitive as that created by the editor of istartedsomething, Long Zheng who, using some technical wizardry alongside Bing’s engine created this:

http://www.istartedsomething.com/livesearch/

The engine performs search queries on a character-by-character basis as they are typed and returns realtime search results directly to the browser. The result is an ultra fast search experience without the need wait for pages to load or even hit the search button to view your results.

This idea is certainly intriguing and something that could move internet searching forward however I can’t help but feel that Google may well and truly have cemented its place in the online search forum especially considering the seeming limitless possibilities of the upcoming Google Wave.

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