San Francisco — Global search engine leader Google has recently been playing around with various homepage designs has formally introduced a brand new version of the search engine’s redesigned iconic homepage that clears out all the on screen clutter that has moved in over the past few years and features a sleek fade-in effect that hides all the elements of the page except the logo, search bar, and the buttons.
In a blog post introducing the change, Google said it had tested with 10 different versions of the fade in design before finalizing on the one that has gone live.
Writing in the blog, Marissa Mayer, vice-president of search products and user experience, Kris Hom, software engineer, and Jon Wiley, user experience designer, said: “Similar to the new super-sized search box we rolled out several months ago, this change is one that is very noticeable at first, and then quickly becomes second nature. We hope you like it.”
In order to access the main Google search page, just move the mouse around, and the extra elements will fade back in gradually before your very eyes.
Additional elements of the page, such as links to Gmail, Image search, Documents, News, Maps, Shopping and Google account etc., will be exposed with a fancy fade-in effect when you fist move the cursor on the screen.
According to Google, most people approach the Google home page to search, and they wanted to get rid of other impediments, unless users specifically wish to see them.
Google has been testing similar designs for several months.
Interestingly enough, Google’s new search homepage is far much less cluttered, in comparison to Bing, the main rival search engine from Microsoft, which superimposes different images under the search bar daily and features search queries of interest.
The fading Google homepage was first discovered a few months ago, when Google was carrying out the tests with various designs. The search company mentions that it tested about ten variants of the fading homepage and chose the current one based on “user happiness metrics”.
“Our objective was to comprehend whether or not over time the users began to adapt the homepage even more expeditiously than the control group and, sure enough, that was the trend we observed,” the Google team explained.
Google in November, also introduced Image Swirl, which bring layers of similar images into searches.
Furthermore, the search giant is also reportedly planning to unleash an online property portal and is in talks with UK estate agents including Douglas & Gordon and Savills.
The Financial Times quoted as saying that the service could jeopardize an existing online property sites, such as Rightmove. If the UK version is based on the property site launched by Google in the US and Australia, it would let estate agents list properties for free, and tie in with the Street View service.
Judging from posts on Twitter, opinions of the new page are pretty evenly mixed. Some believe it is “snazzy,” while others feel it is distracting.” Some do not like that you have to move the mouse to know where specific links are.
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