I've spouted off once or twice about how difficult it can be to enter text information on cell phones. Even phones with full QWERTY keyboards have their quirks. Google thinks it is annoying, too. It has been studying how to make filling out search fields in its mobile search products better. Its answer involves fewer "clicks."

Google actually conducted an entire study on this subject. It is called "Query Suggestions for Mobile Search: Understanding Usage Patterns." In a blog posting, software engineer Maryam Kamvar writes, "In an effort to help our mobile users, we studied the effect of incorporating a feature like Google Suggest on mobile phones with 9-key keypads. We found that these users respond favorably to query suggestions: Users who were shown suggestions while typing their query rated their overall enjoyment higher and perceived workload lower than users who were not shown suggestions. Users who were shown suggestions also reduced their overall key presses by half. Surprisingly, the time to enter a query for these users was not significantly less than the average time needed to enter queries for users who were not shown any suggestions."

I've noticed that Google has added suggestions to search queries on the iPhone. When you begin typing, it will offer several suggestions that you can choose rather than typing out the entire word. This is very helpful and speeds up the time it takes to fire off your search.

Improvements in usability such as this are always appreciated.

I have to point out that in helping you find your search queries all the faster, Google probably hopes that you spend that saved time clicking on the ads it has served you in the process.