There is a well-publicized metaphor called the Butterfly Effect that summarizes the effect of chaos theory by posing the idea that a butterfly’s wings can create tiny changes in the atmosphere that can cause a tornado somewhere in the world. Google recently introduced a feature called “Google Instant” for search optimization that may have the same type of effect on the Internet.

If you go to Google’s search page and begin to type in the search box, Google will take every letter that you type and return a full search result page as you type. For example, if you enter “t” in as the first letter, Google returns a page with the first entry as Target, and other associated Target web sites. Add a “w” as the second letter, and the search page result changes to Twitter, with a number of associated Twitter sites. Add another “il” and suddenly you are transported to the world of Twilight, Stephanie Meyer’s successful vampire love story. Interestingly enough, The Twilight search page has picture and video thumbnails and graphic returned, even though I have not even completed my search. Any letters that I add continue to suggest pages dynamically. Previously, Google would only suggest search terms (but not make an actual search) based on your browser or search history. Read more [+]