Update on the Autocomplete API
Google Search provides an autocomplete service that attempts to predict a query before a user finishes typing. For years, a number of developers have integrated the results of autocomplete within their own services using a non-official, non-published API that also had no restrictions on it. Developers who discovered the autocomplete API were then able to incorporate autocomplete services, independent of Google Search.
There have been multiple times in which the developer community’s reverse-engineering of a Google service via an unpublished API has led to great things. The Google Maps API, for example, became a formal supported API months after seeing what creative engineers could do combining map data with other data sources. We currently support more than 80 APIs that developers can use to integrate Google services and data into their applications.
However, there are some times when using an unsupported, unpublished API also carries the risk that the API will stop being be available. This is one of those situations.
We built autocomplete as a complement to Search, and never intended that it would exist disconnected from the purpose of anticipating user search queries. Over time we’ve realized that while we can conceive of uses for an autocomplete data feed outside of search results that may be valuable, overall the content of our automatic completions are optimized and intended to be used in conjunction with web search results, and outside of the context of a web search don’t provide a meaningful user benefit.
In the interest of maintaining the integrity of autocomplete as part of Search, we will be restricting unauthorized access to the unpublished autocomplete API as of August 10th, 2015. We want to ensure that users experience autocomplete as it was designed to be used — as a service closely tied to Search. We believe this provides the best user experience for both services.
For publishers and developers who still want to use the autocomplete service for their site, we have an alternative. Google Custom Search Engine allows sites to maintain autocomplete functionality in connection with Search functionality. Any partner already using Google CSE will be unaffected by this change. For others, if you want autocomplete functionality after August 10th, 2015, please see our CSE sign-up page.
Posted by Peter Chiu on behalf of the Autocomplete team
Helping users fill out online forms
A lot of websites rely on forms for important goals completion, such as completing a transaction on a shopping site or registering on a news site. For many users, online forms mean repeatedly typing common information like their names, emails, phone numbers or addresses, on different sites across the web. In addition to being tedious, this task is also error-prone, which can lead many users to abandon the flow entirely. In a world where users browse the internet using their mobile devices more than their laptops or desktops, having forms that are easy and quick to fill out is crucial! Three years ago, we announced the support for a new “autocomplete” attribute in Chrome, to make form-filling faster, easier and smarter. Now, Chrome fully supports the “autocomplete” attribute for form fields according to the current WHATWG HTML Standard. This allows webmasters and web developers to label input element fields with common data types, such as ‘name’ or ‘street-address’, without changing the user interface or the backend. Numerous webmasters have increased the rate of form completions on their sites by marking up their forms for auto-completion.
For example, marking up an email address field on a form to allow auto-completion would look like this (with a full sample form available):
<input type="text" name="customerEmail" autocomplete="email"/>
Making websites friendly and easy to browse for users on mobile devices is very important. We hope to see many forms marked up with the “autocomplete” attribute in the future. For more information, you can check out our specifications about Label and name inputs in Web Fundamentals. And as usual, if you have any questions, please post in our Webmasters Help Forums.
Posted by Mathieu Perreault, Chrome Software Engineer, and Zineb Ait Bahajji, Webmaster Trends Analyst
German Court Says Google Must Block Libelous Words Added Via Autocomplete Function
In a surprising turn of events, Germany’s top civil court overturned two lower court rulings on a case involving Google’s autocomplete function. According to the ruling, it is Google’s responsibility to block libelous words that appear next to a name via the autocomplete function…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
Google Autocomplete: Your Personal Brand’s First Impression
Pop Quiz: What is the first thing a searcher sees when they type your name into the Google search bar? If your answer was related webpages found in SERPs, you’re wrong — that would be the second thing. The first thing they see are the Autocomplete suggestions that drop down from the…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.