Google often quotes that the average query submitted to their website is 1.7 words long.  That means that most queries contain only two words, and a fair number contain only one word.  Google can be magical at times, but using one or two words to search through trillions of web pages seems at best hit or miss.  In practice, longer and more specific queries tend to produce better results.

Query Suggestions to the Rescue

How do we encourage users to use more than 1.7 words in their query?  The Query Suggestions feature is one popular and effective solution.  By presenting the user with a list of suggested queries below the search box, they only have to type a few letters before seeing a list of queries to pick from.