The votes are coming in, and the answer is..... maybe.
For SEO, it will be problematic if your site isn't well-written, organized and optimized for keywords. It will favor the big guys. It will be a problem for those who ascribe to the "just plug 'em in" SEO strategy.
Unlike before, searchers will not have to type in long tails - Google will serve them up, and they can just choose. Google has already been doing "personalized" search for a long time - when you type in the Google space on your browser, it basically does what Instant does. Just without showing all the pages.
Now, you'll see results and ads changing in real time as you type. So it will make search more efficient, even if for many, it's more irritating. But it does NOT make SEO irrelevant. Long tails will matter less, but how well Google likes your site will matter more. Good content is king, still.
