The Official Google Blog has acknowledged that it will begin rolling out Google Suggest, which will let you formulate queries with more ease, reduce spelling errors, and save keystrokes. An example screenshot is below:
It's about time, but one wonders if this is happening because of Yahoo's success with Search Assist. While Google has had this technology for years, are they playing "catch up"?
In terms of SEO, there are concerns that this will affect long tail searches and those looking to capitalize on misspelled keywords. Only time will tell if this is indeed to be the case.
Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.