San Francisco — Google is currently testing a new appearance for its iconic search page, featuring cleaner, bolder graphics and a default side bar with bigger search buttons, brighter colors — bold white typeface on bright blue — with a slightly different logo, one without the shadows.
The new aspect is being discovered by a small number of Google users over the past week or so who have already been witnessing the changes as the company tests the new user interface, but not everybody was able to gain access to the interface, although it is not clear when, if ever, the new search interface will be widely deployed.
As you can notice from screen shots below, the revamped Google logo ditches its 3D shading and shadows while the search buttons switch to white text against a bright blue gradient background. It would appear the search team has been smitten by the look of the company’s new collaboration stuff, Google Wave.
The appearance of the search results also have been altered with the left panel added to the page. The panel suggests a user to choose between image, video, news, maps, and other kinds. Besides, the sidebar similar to Bing’s version also includes a list of similar searches with the option to filter the results based on the date Google sniffed out the website.
According to Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience at Google, informed Search Engine Land last week that the new pages are intended to eliminate inconsistencies in how Google presented search results after it added several new elements to the page. But it also mimics what Yahoo and Microsoft have been doing with their search results pages, focusing on presentation and new ways to sort results.
On Wednesday, Gizmodo issued some tips on how to force Google into serving the new pages, and therefore we can bring you some screen shots of the new look and feel for Google search. For those who cannot resist the temptation for a wider roll out, the code below allows users to try the new look ahead of schedule.
First log out of your Google account. Next, from Google.com, copy and paste the following piece of code into your browser’s address bar:
javascript:void(document.cookie=“PREF=ID=20b6e4c2f44943bb:U= 4bf292d46faad806:TM=1249677602:LM=1257919388:S=odm0Ys-53ZueXfZG;path=/; domain=.google.com”);
(Those outside the US may need to force the .com locale by using http://www.google.com/ncr/)
After reloading the page, the redesign should appear. Note the new look appear across the entire website. Services like Google News and Maps will still use the current Google UI.