Sergey Brin Explains Why Google Instant Matters (Video)

In a conversation with DailyFinance, Google co-founder Sergey Brin summarized the future of the Internet behemoth in very simple terms: More searches PLUS more potential revenue EQUALS happy investors. In an interview at the company's Google Instant launch Wednesday, Brin said he expects the new feature to pay-off.

Investors, however, were not totally sold on the concept Wednesday, when Google launched its Google Instant search feature. Google Instant (GOOG) is designed to make searching on the Internet roughly two to three seconds faster per search, as the Internet titan tweaked its system to predict queries as users type.

"I think search volumes will go up as a result of Google Instant, but it's hard for Wall Street to quantify how meaningful that will be to revenues," said Clay Moran, an analyst with The Benchmark Co. "It'll take six months to a year to see what impact there will be on revenues."

Google's share price edged up a scant 1.3%, to close at $470.58 on Wednesday, following the Internet giant's Google Instant announcement earlier in the day. That just slightly outperformed the Nasdaq, which rose 0.9% that day.

As a competitive differentiator, Google Instant is unlikely to offer much advantage. The barrier to entry on the Instant concept is apparently low, and Yahoo and Microsoft's Bing have both tested the waters, according to a report in Search Engine Land.

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Back in 2005, Yahoo trotted out its Yahoo Instant Search (YHOO), and rolled out Livesearch onto one of its second-tier search engines the following year, the report noted. Last year, Real Live Search launched, with ties into Microsoft's (MSFT) Bing search engine.

"The barrier to entry is low and because most people think this is an improvement, there will be a lot of others to follow," Moran said.Google Instant holds 65% marketshare in the U.S., he noted.