New Google UI?

Just checked Google from Opera today and it looks like I'm getting a new UI coming through... Not sure if that's just me or what though...

I just did a Google in Opera and noticed that the UI on deep search pages has changed.

There's javascript on there to load the "More" menu. Has this been around forever? I'm not a regular Opera user so I'm not entirely sure what's going on... I can say that Firefox 2 is how it used to be though:

While I can see the design logic behind it (give the logo and search box — the most important elements — most space), it does make the header a little larger.

If this is new, I wonder if this is the start of Google sexifying its network. Historically, they're pretty stoic when it comes to design but the recent re-re-re-relaunch of ask.com might be scaring them finally into making some sweeping design changes.

#1 /* 15 months, 27 days ago */

I can see the new header under Firefox 2. Whenever Google is beta-testing a new feature, one thing they usually do is push it out to some, but not all users... this can result in Google doing a lot of different things when you switch to another Web browser or delete your cookies.

The "more" button has had the JS effect for some time now. It's just more noticeable now, thanks to the down arrow. :-)

Google's updating the search UI, all right, but I don't think it has anything to do with Ask. Rather, it seems to be related to a big idea of Google's called universal search.

<rant>
I want to give a Microsoft executive a really swift kick in the pants right now. Microsoft execs stopped their devs from working on Internet Explorer for about half a decade, and wouldn't allow them to resume work until Firefox came along. So now a bunch of people have this attitude of "Hey, a corporation did something; it must be because a competitor scared them", an attitude which Oli has just demonstrated in the last sentence of the blog post. And that attitude really bothers me, especially when Google is concerned. I really like Google. Microsoft has given corporations a bad name.
</rant>

Cross me and be thagomized.

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Stegosaurus Normal User

#2 — Author comment /* 15 months, 27 days ago */

Oh I really didn't mean it like that. Google has been top dog because they don't fluff around with the design as much as all the other SE companies. Their product is their search results.

But ultimately users are fickle... If they think something somewhere else looks cooler and it works just as well, chances are they might change their behaviour to use it. Google applications are some of the most basic when it comes to UI and I think they might be concerned that people are going for places with rounded corners regardless of feature-quality.

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