Google Rolls Back Search Page Change

At the end of last year, I wrote a short piece about Google's latest change to the search page complete with screenshots and the (for me) rare admission that I actually quite liked a change that Google had made. Well, so much for that. Last week, Google announced that they'd changed the search page navigation yet again, and have discontinued the large right-hand side drop down, in favour of the Gmail and Google+ style top navigation bar.

User Feedback

According to Google, they've made this change based on user feedback. (Which suggests that a lot of people didn't agree with me about the last change.) In their official announcement, they said that the design retains many of the feature changes they made last year, that were popular, but with the change that the drop down menu has been replaced with a "consistent and expanded set of links running across the top of the page." I'm not going to worry about a screenshot here, since all you need to do is go to Google to see it.

Always Testing

Google is always testing new things like this. Every now and then, they'll sneak something new out, and a small percentage of random users will see it. In fact, I just saw a version of the navigation bar that was thinner than usual. But when I went back to get a screenshot, I had the standard one again. Keep an eye out. You never know what you might stumble across.