Googlebot is most definitely able to run scripts: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/just-how-smart-are-search-robots How is your link positioned inside the script? Is there visible anchor text anywhere in the widget/pop-up window?

I hope they were that intentional, but I  wonder if their Marcom team just thought the simplicity of the call to action might get more results than yet another website to be ignored.

What I mean is, a CTA like "google XYZ"  might get a slight percentage advantage of people above and beyond the response rate on the direct entry of a company URL. Besides, most people tend to Google a brand name to get to their website anyway, rather than enter it in browser....

I'm wondering whether paid analytics platforms out there may have a solution. Seems to me a tracked entrance path could retain keyterms for a goal-tracking report.

Also, entrance terms would be relevant to dynamic landing pages, something many affiliate sites use, and if conversion requires a sign-up, then clearly those tools would exist to capture the dynamic terms and dB them for CPA metrics.

In other words, I am sure this exists, but am guessing the resource would be a paid analytics module maybe within an  ecommerce/affiliate platform.

Does each unique have a session ID?

Fascinating... If I had to pick the hardest kind of word to be able to manipulate on Instant, it would be a two letter verb! Maybe only a personal pronoun would be harder!

The last time you used Google and it auto-suggested a result, you saw those terms/keywords. That impression may not have been tracked, but think of how useful that could be for branding. You type in "ACME" and you see "Acme Rubberbands."
Now you've associated the product with the brand whereas you may not have before, and you may well have been prompted to navigate to that search query.

It's also relevant to reputation management. If you've got a negative suggested query, you'd want to suppress that.

The last time you used Google and it auto-suggested a result, you saw those terms/keywords. That impression may not have been tracked, but think of how useful that could be for branding. You type in "ACME" and you see "Acme Rubberbands."
Now you've associated the product with the brand whereas you may not have before, and you may well have been prompted to navigate to that search query.

It's also relevant to reputation management. If you've got a negative suggested query, you'd want to suppress that.

Googlebot is most definitely able to run scripts: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/just-how-smart-are-search-robots How is your link positioned inside the script? Is there visible anchor text anywhere in the widget/pop-up window?