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Welcome to the ineedhits Search Engine Marketing blog, where we share the latest search engine and online marketing news, releases, industry trends and great DIY tips and advice.
After months of testing, Google’s new search engine results page design has gone live around the world. In the words of their Senior User Experience Designer:
“In short, we tried to take all the things we strive for at Google and make them better: powerful technology, snappy results, simplicity and a fun and quirky personality. Our goal was to take a design known by millions of people and make it better.”
The most obvious changes in the new design are:
The search options panel which was introduced last May has been given a makeover and made a permanent feature in the left hand side.
In the end, we came up with a design that provides dynamic, relevant search tools on the left, while lightening and updating the aesthetics all around.
For those of you wonder what’s different with the logo, it has been give a slight facelift also. With the introduction of the left navigation creating a bit more clutter, the Google team wanted to lighten up the rest of the page – hence the changes to the logo.
The new logo is lighter, brighter and simpler. We took the very best qualities of our design — personality and playfulness — and distilled them.
People will be debating the pro’s and con’s of the changes for some time, but ultimately, I think they’ll be welcomed in the long term.
Searchers are becoming more sophisticated, so the search options will provide easy access to important filtering. And the colour enhancement, while only slight, offers a freshen up to a brand that has changed little for a number of years.
And with the final design now live, lets take a look at some of the designs that were dumped….
Rene is the marketing manager of ineedhits.com - a global search engine marketing company. He also leads the marketing for Gooruze.com - a web 2.0 style community for online and digital marketers. Rene has been in the industry since 1997 with much of that time spent helping businesses embrace the best of the internet and digital world. Top 10 Listing! Get more targeted visitors to your site! No click fees! Find Out More Here | 1000+ Guaranteed Visitors Get thousands of guaranteed website visitors to your site in 30 days! Get Started Here |
Great post as always Rene,
However I am struggling to follow Google’s direction with these changes. First they introduce a minimalist fade in homepage, and then a few months later they’re adding new icons and search filters to the left hand side of the page! Given that most of these options can be found duplicated at the top of the page, I’m not sure why they have decided to repeat them again.
Even the icons they’ve chosen on the left hand side don’t seem to match with Google’s traditional design. For example, check out the images they have used here, (http://www.google.com.au/support/?hl=en) and compare these with their new icons – looks like they’ve been done by a different designer altogether!
By Matthew Elshaw - May 6, 2010
[...] week Rene posted about Google’s new homepage design, along with some of the other changes that didn’t make the final cut. With millions of people [...]
By Do You Like Google’s Design Makeover? | ineedhits - May 10, 2010
I love the new design it makes searching more simple and happy surfing. Love the new logo, it is very attractive.
Thanks.
Gurinder Kohli
By Gurinder Kohli - May 11, 2010
Hi One thing you did not mention is previously in New Zealand as example the searcher was given the choice of choosing 1. New Zealand 2 The rest of the world
This has been removed and only appears on the left hand side of the page AFTER the sercher has entered the search phrase. End result people are getting more world results than local. is that good for the searcher ??? I don’t think soBy craig - May 16, 2010
After briefly reviewing the article, I think Google should have left the logo the way it was already. I also believe the left looks cluttered somewhat. It seems that Google is trying to make an effort because the competition is getting tougher than usual. FB has caused a ton of comotion recently and is constantly in the lime light.
Google has millions of users daily and should not fear loosing and business. Even if they were to loose a few searchers, it wouldn’t really affect them to much. I believe Google should focus on maintaining their great products they have created already. Trying to create all these new products is great but what good does it do if they don’t work they way people want them to work. As Microsoft should do slow down and fix the problems with the existing products, which in turn will make customers happier and bring more business eventually.
Rest assured though, FB is not a perfect company. I use Google, Bing, and FB daily and they all have quirks. With all the FB hipe going on lately they have gotten a ton of publicity, but do they actually need it. In my opion no. Nor does Google or Bing. They are so well known that no matter who is on top everyone uses them and will continue to use them. Myself, it don’t matter which one of them is on the top. As long as they work properly and provide me with what I want then I can not say it matters much to me.
By Ty - May 19, 2010
[...] re-designed its search engine results page in May this year. The most obvious design change was the introduction of the search options panel on the [...]
By Is Google Suffering from Bing Design Envy? | ineedhits - July 26, 2010
[...] Check Out Google’s New Design Here [...]
By ineedhits Newsletter Archive » SEO News | A New Google Design Goes Live Globally - November 23, 2011
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