Instant Search on Google Product Search (and other small changes)

From Google Blog:

Instant results in the “Shopping” view
Now you can shop faster than ever and get the speed of Google Instant when comparing prices, looking for nearby stores and learning about products you want to buy. For example, if you’re searching for a cast iron skillet, we’ll start showing you relevant pans as you type [cast iro...]. Click “Shopping” in the left-hand panel and try searching for [sweater wrap shawl], [android phone] or anything else.

Logical move by Google to apply the Instant Search concept on all its verticals, including Product Search. However, I’m not as convinced as for web search : the main drawback is speed… In my experience, the Shopping results take too much time to be displayed for Instant Search to be useful.

Also, the ability of Google Instant to bring back the advanced search queries I’ve done in the past (i.e: using the “site:” operator) but to not support those within Product Search (I’m therefore landing on no results pages…) is quite frustrating, almost upsetting…

Also to be noted that Google Instant is not available from the homepage of Google Product Search. It seems to me Google has rushed this development.

As side notes, while testing Google Instant, I’ve noticed two small changes that I’ve found pretty interesting:

• Searching for “canon eos 60d” within Google Product Search, the first result has a mention “#2 in SLR Canon Digital Cameras“, linking to the sub-category. Subtle but really pleasant way to expand the query of the user. The kind of tiny detail that looks anecdotal but has surely been carefully thought by the product team!
• Searching for “canon eos 60d” within Web Search, the shopping boxes now display a “nearby stores” link on relevant products, that shows how serious Google is about local shopping.