Just when you thought Google's services couldn't get more up-to-the-minute, the company has announced big changes to the way its search offerings work. No longer will users have to type out an entire query and click the "Search" button when they're finished—instead, the page will dynamically begin displaying a page with results the second you start typing.

"When you enter a query, there's a physical speed for typing, and when selecting a result, there's a physical speed for thinking," Google VP of Search Marissa Mayer said during a media event on Wednesday. "Is it possible to optimize search even more? We think it's possible to have a system for a user to enter a query with a lot of feedback and search even faster."

The new search, called Google Instant, differs from the live search suggestions you get as you type out a query. Instead of providing a list of things you might be searching for, the site itself displays a live updated search results page based on what you're entering. Search suggestions still exist (Google is now referring to them as "predictions"), and they now work in conjunction with Google Instant.

According to Mayer, the search results are "streamed to you" based on what you've typed so far. "There's almost a psychic element to it, because Google tries to predict the results and present them to you in real time," she said.

The new search is rolling out through the course of Wednesday and will work immediately under Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and IE 8. Why do the browsers matter? Google wrote in a blog post that it employed a number of new technologies to make Google Instant possible, including "caching systems, the ability to adaptively control the rate at which we show results pages and an optimization of page-rendering JavaScript to help web browsers keep up with the rest of the system."

The company estimates that Google Instant will save users between two and five seconds per search, which adds up to 11 hours of human time per second when you combine all of Google's search traffic.

Google has been hinting at this change for days with its cryptic logos—first on Tuesday with interactive bubbles ("We really ran this logo because we want search to be fun, fast, and interactive," Mayer said). On Wednesday, the image changed to a gray Google logo that lit up as you typed into the search box, foreshadowing the Google Instant announcement.

We already have access to Google Instant—Google says all US users should have it by the end of today, as well as logged-in users in the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Russia. So far during our limited testing, it works as expected and does indeed save some time. And, when Google rolls the service out for mobile devices this fall, it will undoubtedly flourish by helping users reduce their clunky typing time to find what they're looking for.