I did a search a moment ago and was surprised to discover that real-time searching is enabled for my account. This is apparently Google's big announcement today. It's kind of neat; no more hitting "Enter" or clicking "Search".
It doesn't seem to be active for everyone yet. I pulled up a different browser without logging in to my Google account and there was no real-time searching there.
The name they're using is "Instant Search" there's an option next to the search box to turn off instant search:
I believe this must be the top secret thing a sibling of yours told me about a while ago. (Can't use his name since it was top secret - like I would spread the word to competitors!) I had no idea what the big advantage would be but apparently you like it.