Do You Like The New Google?

I know from experience with this blog that redesigns are fraught with uncertainties - new things may break, people fear change and get attached to a particular style, and so on - so I'm watching the Google redesign with particular interest.

Google is rolling out a new look (you may or may not yet see the new design) that's sleeker and, well, different. It's actually their 8th iteration - though previous changes had been subtle that most users didn't even notice. Not this one, though. Marissa Mayer, VP of Search calls it "particularly large and particularly important."

Helen Walters of Bloomberg BusinessWeek has the inside scoop of the redesign process:

Google has long had advanced search capabilities, but they were difficult to find. The goal of redesign eight was to surface them and integrate them into the main results page. Users now get results with an extra column of tools to drill deeper into information. That means a query can be quickly refined to show only results from shopping sites, say, or just videos on a topic, or the latest news results. Add in a new logo and a splash of colorful icons on the left side of the page that guide users through the new options, and the look is noticeably different (right).

Given that the shift of a few pixels can affect Google's profits, why would the company ever mess with the most successful product in the history of the Internet? "The Web is always changing, evolving, and innovating," says Mayer. "It's important even for sites that people use every day and are very familiar with, like Google, to update their look."

Now, without going further into the functionalities of the new Google, let me ask you a simple question:

Previously on Neatorama: 10 Neat Facts About Google


Mine does - I like it. I like the automatic inclusion of a map, or an image or whatever as the first answer. Seems to work well so far for my queries. Of course there will be the odd occasion where it throws up something totally unrelated.
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The thing that seems to be getting people most annoyed (including me) is the presence of the options sidebar on the left of the results. In particular, if you go on the google forums, that's what people want to know how to turn off. It takes up far too much space on the screen, especially if I'm browsing on my netbook.
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I use Google mainly for the uncluttered, spartan layout. It's something I've really come to love after nearly 12 years. I had to get rid of the annoying sidebar thing and useless graphs through the use of the Firefox extension Element Hiding tool. If I wanted any of the nonsense I would have just used bing or yahoo. Google has finally jumped the shark.
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Well I WAS going to contribute my 1c to this discussion by voting on the poll, but I could not, in good conscience, select any of the options.

Why does it have to "rock" or "suck". And "meh" is also on the negative side. The changes will take a little getting used to, but they've added options without interfering with "normal" usage at all.

Good luck to 'em.
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No sir, I don't like it. Google's main draws are as follows:

1) uncluttered

2) desired results are immediately easy to locate

Now they have a bunch of visual junk cluttering up the screen. I'm going back to Lycos. Or Dogpile.
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WHAT?? Really now? Last time I watched a CNBC inside on Google, there was a special person dedicated to making sure the google was uncluttered, clean and fresh. She has definitely lost her touch. I googled "do you like the new google" specifically so that I can find a poll out there. I would have much rather linked it if the ton of search preferences they offered were hidden and you clicked a small icon to view. I have not seen the map just yet and thank God I haven't.

I love google, I still do, but I am not fond of the redesign at all.

Thank you "Alex in Blog & Internet," I appreciate the opportunity to vent.
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