Here's the thing about Google Instant: It doesn't change search as much as you might think. I'm not ignoring the fact that it's a big innovation. The speed required to make Instant work is mind-boggling. Somewhere in the world lights flicker every time you do an Instant search. But it's not going to cause SEO's to spontaneously combust. Nor is it going to be one last nail in Bing's coffin - Microsoft will have to do that themselves. Why people think Google Instant will bring the End Times I know a lot of people are suggesting that Google Instant may kill the long tail and take SEO with it. If you're new to search, the 'long tail' are all of those phrases of 3+ words that drive highly-targeted, low-volume traffic to your site. The long tail is a huge chunk of search. Over 60% of all searches performed on Google are long tail. The theory: If someone starts to type in a long-tail search, but Google Instant shows them a good, click-worthy result after they type in a word or two, then