Use Autocompletions to suggest searches quickly

Autocompletions shows users useful queries while they are typing. For example, with autocompletions enabled, when someone starts typing "ta" into your search engine, they might see autocompletions like "tavern" or "tapestry." Google generates these autocompletions by analyzing several characteristics of your search engine, including the content of the pages it includes.

Autocompletions are only generated for search engines receiving search traffic. If your search engine isn't receiving any traffic it will only have custom autocompletions.

Autocompletions are not supported when using Custom Search JSON API to implement your Programmable Search Engine.

Enable autocomplete: 

1. From the list of search engines, select the search engine you want to edit.
2. Click Overview and scroll down to Search features. Click on "All search features settings".
3. Under Search features, scroll down to Autocomplete.
4. Toggle On/Off to Enable/Disable Autocomplete. It can take up to 2-4 days for autocompletions tailored to your search engine to start appearing. 

Include autocompletions from the entire web:

Autocompletions tailored to your search engine are generated based on the sites you include in your search engine. However, since those may be insufficient, additional autocompletions are available through the Include autocompletions from the entire web option. These additional autocompletions are available instantly, but are not tailored to your specific search engine and are not affected by exclude queries or exclude patterns.

1. From the list of search engines, select the search engine you want to edit.
2. Click Overview and scroll down to Search features. Click on "All search features settings".
3. Under Search features, scroll down to Autocomplete.
4. Toggle On/Off to Enable/Disable Include autocompletions from the entire web.

Custom autocompletions to include:

While Google will suggest autocompletions automatically, you have option to manually include autocompletions. Autocompletions you add here will always be shown when a user types a matching query. You can also add a score of any number between 0 and 10,000 to rank autocompletions. Higher scored autocompletions will be shown before lower scored autocompletions. 

1. To Add custom auto-completions, beside "Custom Autocompletions to include", click "Add". 
2. Enter "Autocomplete suggestions term" and "suggestion score (optional)". 
3. Click Save.

Autocompletions to exclude:

While Google will suggest autocompletions automatically, you have the option to manually exclude autocompletions. Autocompletions you add here will never be shown, even when the user types a matching query. 

1. To Exclude auto generated auto-completions, beside "Autocompletions to exclude", click "Add". 
2. Enter "Autocomplete suggestions term" and check/uncheck "Regular expression". You can use regular expressions to exclude any autocompletions that match a certain pattern. For example:
   • a.* will match the autocompletions with a
   • en.* will match the autocompletions with en
   • .*maps.* will match any string containing maps
3. Click Save.

Note: You can add up to 20,000 included and excluded custom autocompletions. Any custom autocomplete suggestions term or regular expression added, may take up to 48 hours for the effect on your search engine.