Over the past few months, Google has been showing previews of their new look and feel over almost all of their products, from Gmail to Google Docs, and everything in between. It’s already been implemented in some places, in others, you’ve had the option to try the new look.
Either way, they’ve been updating their interfaces in a Google+ kind of style, and now that look has come to the standard search interface too.
When I opened my browser this morning, I was greeted by a new menu. Instead of the usual bar across the top giving me access to my Gmail, there was an open drop-down instead. (Edit: Looks like it’s still in testing…today it’s gone.)
As soon as I clicked on the page to start typing a search query, the drop-down closed into the Google logo in the top left corner.
As long as you’re searching, or otherwise active on the page, it’s not there. The usual search options display down the left side. If you need access to anything in the menu, just click on the small drop-down arrow next to that logo, and the menu opens up again.
I actually quite like it, and I’m not a fan of Google’s new look yet. It takes me a while to get used to that sort of thing. But this is nice and unobtrusive. In fact, it brings back the old feel when there was nothing at all on the search page except a logo.
Finally a Google change I can get behind.