Worse yet, they've somehow broken the ability to hit space to scroll by a page.
Shit Case 1: sometimes you do a search, find a new phrase and begin typing it only to see the phrase disappear from the original search results and replaced with updated results for an incomplete and often incoherent query.
Shit Case 2: often I begin typing a new search query and realize mid "sentence" that the current query was fine. Well, too late. Because the results have already refreshed. Hitting the back key does little good. In best case, it doesn't work. In worst case, it will take you to the previous physical page that you were on before you came to google.
I find some of these changes mind boggling and can only convince myself to accept them by tell myself "hey google looks at the numbers, may be most folks just like it". Particularly the ajax search...annoys the crap out of me and finds way to enable itself even when I disable it.
For example, let's say I found some new framework for a new language I haven't worked with. I can easily find competing frameworks by typing in something like '[framework name] vs' and Google will will suggest the most commonly compared frameworks. I think it's very useful when you don't know exactly what you are searching for. Yes, I know it has some usability issues but in my opinion the pros outweigh the cons.
What I hate is when I type, say a few letters of my query, and begin seeing frivolous search results begin to appear. I hate when I hit the back key, often it takes me to the previous page or simply removes the last letter from my query and updates the results. I hate when I begin typing an obscure name I just found from another query and see it disappear after I have typed a couple of letters.
I was just fine hitting the "return" key to pull up search results.
Google needs to be usable by everyone. They iterate the product to make sure that most people get good search results. But this means that some people are getting sub-optimal results, especially as Google makes changes to the way search works.
Google didn't used to use stemming. Some words are now stemmed automatically. Google didn't used to substitute words. Some words are now substituted automatically. Google used to use + to force inclusion of a word, but they've dropped that and now use quotes to "force" "inclusion" of words "or phrases".
People reading HN might think that + is easy enough to use, and "enclosing" "every" "word" in "quotes" is stupid, but Google does have the numbers. (http://insidesearch.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/search-using-your...)
> In the past, we provided users with the “+” operator to help you search for specific terms. However, we found that users typed the “+” operator in less than half a percent of all searches, and two thirds of the time, it was used incorrectly.
Check my math, but I think that means that + was used correctly in only 1 out of 600 searches.
+ was changed because of Google+ branding, IMO.
Why does Google need to work the same way for everyone?
Since when AJAX search is more usable than JavaScript-less one? I'd say it's strictly (in the mathematical sense) other way around.
I used to have it for quite some time, new laptop set it back to normal, and for now it hasn't quite annoyed me enough yet to set it again (also because I'm using DuckDuckGo much more these days, for similar reasons), but it was good when I had it.
I really wish Google had some setting to turn off this "instant search update" thing, as well as how the input box continuously steals the focus (this breaks many keyboard shortcuts in Opera), because the other interactive/dynamic features they do with JS on the web search page are quite useful.
Parent mentions scrolling with the space key. Another: selecting text (prior to copying it). Another: making text bigger, e.g., with the Zoom In ("+") button. Another: going to the start or end of the page. Another: scrolling without annoying or time-wasting latency.