Google now wants us to make our own 'Luck'.. And rightly so..

All good things come to an end... for better things in life --> goes a saying. It's true not only in our personal life, but also in technology. When we accept a newer (and supposedly better) technology, most of us discard and completely ignore the previous technology. But there are some who become emotionally attached to a particular feature and continue using it, come what may.

Google is known for innovations. Every now and then, they come up with features that help us search better on the net. In short, they make our life (if searching takes up substantial hours every day) simpler. They have their experimental features (labs), they modify their search algorithms every now and then to offer quality search results. They also remove certain features for new and improved ones. One such (speculative) example is that of "I'm Feeling Lucky". This feature is missing in the new homepage released by Google in Finland.

What is 'I'm feeling Lucky'?

When we search for anything in google, we are given two options - one is generic search and the other one is the feeling lucky feature. The 'feeling lucky' feature will redirect you to the first webpage in the search. Most of us have a habit of typing in a keyword and hitting enter. Only 1% of all the searches go through the 'I'm feeling Lucky' feature. It's a great feature to have if you know you will be directed to the webpage you want.

Why should Google discontinuing the feature?

1. Google Instant: Google instant, as the name suggests, is a feature that gives you instant results. How? When you enter your search keyword in Google's homepage, you will immediately be directed to the search results even if you haven't completed entering the keywords. It actually looks like the next wave of innovation in internet search industry. You seem there are two key ways in which you can differentiate your search  vis-a-vis competition. One is the turn-around time and the other is quality results. Google has hit the nail on the head by improving the turn-around time with 'instant'. Now, if you have activated Google Instant, you will never be lucky enough to click the 'I'm feeling Lucky' button. Why have it then?
2. Advertising: Many of us know that Google earns revenue through advertisements. They rent out ad space to companies and when a similar word is being searched by any user, their client's ad is shown and is ethically demarcated in the search results. This is where the 'feeling lucky' feature will lose out. If we are using this feature, we are bypassing all the adverts shown in the search result, thereby disallowing google to earn revenue out of it. According to this site, Google is losing around $110 million in revenue every year. Hence, it makes financial sense to do away with the feature that only '1 in every 100' uses.

If Google is actually removing the 'feeling lucky' feature, then "Bye Bye - 'I'm feeling Lucky".. One percent of the Google search population (who are emotionally attached to this feature) will miss you...

Anyways, the youth of today believes in having more options and taking a calculated risk thereby making their own luck. Guess what, through the 'instant' feature, Google is only aiding us in the process !!