Google has just released a new feature that speeds up the search process. It makes use of a prefetching capability that is currently only supported by Firefox. Basically what it does is automatically loads the first search result in the background, so when you click on the link, the page comes up instantly. It doesn't seem to do it for every search. I'm not sure what triggers it, or if it's just random during a testing phase. It is a pretty bold move of Google to add a feature that works in Firefox but not Internet Explorer, but then again, it's simply making use of the fact that Firefox is more powerful than Internet Explorer is. Hopefully this starts a trend where big companies are no longer shy to offer Firefox users the extra power that Internet Explorer can't handle.

Edit 2005-03-31: It seems that whether or not Google will add the prefetch tag (a link tag with rel="prefix") depends on whether or not Google expects the user to click on that link. This probably involves an algorithm very similar to Google's Browse By Name algorithm, or perhaps it's the same one.