Yes, Google Instant is a time-saver. But does this new innovation in search (the first we’ve had in ages) really lead to smarter search results as Google claims, or does it tell us what we already know, just more quickly? We took it through its paces in multiple locations. Here’s what we found.

Firstly, the obvious. We can confirm from our trials (with me in Rome and Andrew in Cardiff plugging in the letters of the alphabet) that Google Instant is very provincial. The more provincial the results depends on your location. That’s to be expected. It would pretty fishy if the search results resembled merely the same bland listing of Fortune 100 brands. While the regional differences in the search results seem to be a bit more subtle in the United States, as Advertising Age revealed yesterday, where you get big differences is when you look across countries, as we did here.

Here’s the Google Instant results from the bel paese. Contrast it with Cardiff (just below).

A = Alice (The Telecom Italia broadband service)
B = BNL (what, no Berlusconi?) This is a big bank, Banco Nazionale del Lavoro
C = Corriere (as in the newspaper, Corriere della Sera)
D = dizionario
E = eBay
F = Facebook
G = Giochi (games… No Google here?)
H = Hotmail
I = Inps (the equivalent of the Department of Labo(u)r)
J = Juventus (‘nuff said)
K = Kijiji (an eBay subsidiary)
L = Libero (another newspaper)
M = Meteo (the weather)
N = Nokia
O = Oroscopo
P = Pagine Bianche (what, not the yellow pages? Where’s the Pope?)
Q = Quattroroute (literally, “four wheels”… equivalent of the Kelley Blue Book)
R = Rai (the state broadcaster)
S = Subito (“quick”, and the name of a classified sales service)
T = Trenitalia
U = Unicredit (another bank, just the second on this list)
V = Virgilio
X = X Factor (yep, the UK talent show, now airing here on Rai)
Y = YouTube
Z = Zara

The Welsh version now:

A = Argos (catalogue store)
B = BBC
C = Currys (electrical retailer)
D = Debenhams (beating out the Daily Mail)
E = eBay
F = Facebook
G = Google Maps
H = Hotmail
I = Ikea
J = John Lewis
K = KLM
L = Lotto
M = MSN
N = Next
O = 02
P = PayPal
Q = Quidco (cashback voucher shopping)
R = RightMove (property website)
S = Sky
T= Tesco
U = utube (Do we really need the phonetic spelling? Number 2 here is UCAS, the UK university admission system)
V = Vodafone
W = Weather
X  = Xe (currency exchange)
Y = YouTube
Z = Zara

In Italy, the 19 of the 26 searches (73%) are for local brands and indigenous search terms. What strikes me is that there are no references to those quintessential Italian things–you know, wine, cuisine, sunny vacations, the Catholic Church (i.e., Pagine Bianche is more popular than the Pope). And just one football club makes the list. There’s no Inter or Roma or Milan.

Now to Cardiff. Here, the results are not quite so local in flavor, erm, flavour. We get 11 non-UK brands (I’m counting Vodafone as a local brand here, btw), or 57% of the time the local player comes up first.

I think that’s a healthier mix. We aren’t always Googling for the most familiar service, product or brand, after all. The net has given us the power to search beyond our borders. Let’s hope that over time the Google Instant suggestion engine doesn’t alter the searching habits of the masses to an unvaried, homogenized approach.

Lastly, we see, there are certain brands that are emerging as first choice for online consumers no matter where you sit down to Google. Some are obvious, including Facebook, YouTube and eBay. Others surprise me like Hotmail. Zara, I suspect, benefits from the dearth of well known “Z” brands. I reckon that had some version of this been around a generation ago we might have seen brands like Coca-Cola, Microsoft and Marlboro beating out the likes of “Meteo” and Currys. I wonder if the folks at Interbrand are testing this out this morning. Lastly, huge omissions: not a single Apple brand, and where’s Twitter?

Additional reporting by Andrew Weltch in Cardiff.