Google Scribe: Tries to autopredict what you think

Google is refining its search autocomplete feature with the new Google Scribe -- a Google Labs project that went live yesterday.

On a day when Google mystified its UK users with a mysterious bouncing balls doodle, it unveiled another feature to enhance its Web search -- an autocomplete tool called Google Scribe.

Google Scribe "provides text completion service," said Google. Google Scribe also claims to provide related word or phrase completion suggestions based on the information in a typed document, for instance. The autocomplete Google Labs experiment, Google Scribe also indicates correct or popular phrases to use as you type.

Although this sounds like a cool and useful Google service, Google Scribe's autocomplete features (at the time of writing this) are still in its infancy. The Google Scribe autocomplete feature didn't predict everything smoothly.

We tried predictions through relevance on Google Scribe. In one case, typing "A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away" accurately predicted "star wars" as the next possible occurence which I was actually thinking. Subsequently, typing J prompted "jedi", GE predicted "george lucas". In short, Google Scribe did help save time and served the autocomplete purpose accurately.

But in another instance, typing "j r r tolkien the lord of the rings fantasy" wrongly predicted "football" as the next word. Not the most relevant autosuggestion there from Google Scribe.

You can visit http://scribe.googlelabs.com to test Google Scribe. You can also use keyboard shortcuts and mouse to better interact with Google Scribe (http://scribe.googlelabs.com/static/help.html) and bookmarklet to pin on a browser.

According to Techcrunch, the mystery Google Doodle and Google Scribe release point towards a Google press event later today that promises a revamp to Google's search user interface that's "fast, fun, and interactive."