Googles New Look and Layout

D.W

Anyone got opinions on the new look and layout of Google search results unveiled in the past 24 hours?

stellarartois

The toolbar it does nothing!?Why oh Why?

Pacifico

Not a fan of the bar on the left hand side....

Thrill

Dislike it a lot. Especially that damned left-hand sidebar. Googles forums are full of people complaining about it. Theres already an addon to get rid of it.....

http://www.seotools.com/hide-google-options/index.htm

smemon

i think it's better myself...

people always hate change but if you step back and look at things from a 'first time user' perspective, your view will usually change...

it was the same with office 2007, same with facebook... people hate changes but imo the new layout makes it easier to carry out advanced / specific searches.

for example a custom date search... previously that was hassle but now it can be done from the results page...

it's also quicker to do advanced video / image searches... a lot of people won't have seen or heard of many of the advanced search features so they'll now experience them for the first time and that will probably help them find what they're looking for with more accuracy so that can only be a good thing...

Klingon Hamlet

FTW

stellarartois

Thrill wrote: »

Dislike it a lot. Especially that damned left-hand sidebar. Googles forums are full of people complaining about it. Theres already an addon to get rid of it.....

http://www.seotools.com/hide-google-options/index.htm

This add-on worked at first but now its back to that stupid toolbar on the lefthandside, whats goin on?

Thrill

It works on Google.com but not on Google.ie.

WebGeek

I can't stand it! Every day I'm using more and more of Bing!!

Huskora

I hate the new look of google, i hate the way you cannot just search just ireland results!! :P They messed it up big time!!

Huskora

Huskora wrote: »

I hate the new look of google, i hate the way you cannot just search just ireland results!! :P They messed it up big time!!

Eh yeah you can.

I think it's great...

ColmDawson

I wish they hadn't removed the feature that let you click the search term for its definition.

yuloni

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jmcc

It is moronic. The people who did it really haven't a clue about how people search. People want results and the old layout provided them. It was what differentiated Google from other search engines. The 'pages from $country' thing is also very important outside the US. It seems quite obvious that the people responsible aren't outside the US so don't have a clue about it. Moving it to the lefthand side toolbar is stupid.

As for this famed Google heatmap: rubbish! People read English from Left to Right. Their eyes only return to the left hand side when starting a new sentence. Their eyes may start on the left but they end on the right. Now when they are reading the SERPs, they will focus on the beginning of the SERPs on the left and will try hard to ignore the toolbar.

Regards...jmcc

yuloni

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jmcc

Condi wrote: »

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No. It is still the same moronic design.

Regards...jmcc

Cookie33

dont like it, not as easy as the old way.. :mad:

Goodshape

Small changes, big improvement.

Results start right below and in-line with the search bar. Tidy.

I've been using the features in the new left side bar a lot more than I ever did before (for those that were there before). Switching between 'Everything', 'Updates', 'Discussions', etc. is fast and easy.

Pages from Ireland link is right there. What's the beef?

The timeline on the 'Updates' page is cool, and useful.

Only downside is the very annoying omission of the 'definition' links.


// Edit
I notice the definitions are gone from the old style page too -- http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=all. Presumably someone got annoyed that the big G were sending all their definition seekers to one place, not allowing for the competition to float to the top. A search for 'define: word' still brings back a definition.

yuloni

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jmcc

Goodshape wrote: »

Pages from Ireland link is right there. What's the beef?

It is not below the search box anymore. This is the problem. Great for USA but crap for those of us who are outside the USA and have their own ccTLD/country.

Regards...jmcc

Goodshape

Problem? Crap? It's right beside all the other links that filter the results. I can't think of anywhere I'd rather put it.

And 'Great for USA'... what, like Google are trying to hoodwink the rest of the world by 'hiding' the local listings button? Please.

The pages from $country button is a lot less important these days anyway. Google uses geo-location to bring you the best results. Ever try a search with geo-location disabled? Results are shockingly different. I can't remember the last time I've had to specify "from Ireland" in order to get Irish relevant results.


This fear of change is bizarre.

jmcc

Goodshape wrote: »

Problem? Crap? It's right beside all the other links that filter the results. I can't think of anywhere I'd rather put it.

Back where it was - right below the search box.

And 'Great for USA'... what, like Google are trying to hoodwink the rest of the world by 'hiding' the local listings button? Please.

It has all the marks of a US only design that is utterly clueless about the world outside of the USA.

The pages from $country button is a lot less important these days anyway. Google uses geo-location to bring you the best results.

All hail the great Google. Geo location is not precise and it is something that search engines still have problems with. Ireland is a good example due to the complexity of ISP IP mapping.

This fear of change is bizarre.

Breaking something that works is always the act of a moron.

Regards...jmcc

Goodshape

jmcc wrote: »

It has all the marks of a US only design that is utterly clueless about the world outside of the USA.

Because they moved a largely unused button (would be interested now to see click rates on that!) over to where all the other buttons are? I don't get it.

Geo location is not precise and it is something that search engines still have problems with.

Maybe. Has always worked well for me though. Search for something generic like bus timetable brings back Bus Eireann, Dublin Bus, CIE, RTE, etc. Not a hint of anything even remotely US related in the first two pages of results. All entirely Irish.

And if I really feel the need to filter those results a bit more... I go to the search options menu, where all the search options live.

Breaking something that works is always the act of a moron.

This works better. Search filters are much easier to get to and the whole thing looks cleaner and brighter.


Each to their own, though. You're fully entitled to be wrong if you so choose

jmcc

Goodshape wrote: »

This works better. Search filters are much easier to get to and the whole thing looks cleaner and brighter.


Each to their own, though. You're fully entitled to be wrong if you so choose

I am right - as are lots of others. Here's a simple explanation of why Google screwed up:

http://siliconangle.com/blog/2010/05/06/im-not-sure-im-a-fan-of-googles-new-layout/

Regards...jmcc

Goodshape

Ah no, really. He's complaining about a search for 'trending items' returning real-time results. So basically, I can now use Google to search for info on breaking stories, and get back the latest up-to-the-second results. How is that not an improvement?

Interesting that the championed "Actual Results" he's got marked out in the 'Google's New Layout' search aren't nearly as relevant as the links above from news and 'Latest'. Again, an improvement.


Looking at the old layout... how do I get the netbook sales figures that might have been published in, say, the last 2 days? Or with fewer shopping links?

Also, the results area in the new screenshot isn't "shrunk". The horizontal space is the same, with less padding on the right, and there are actually more results listed in the new version (6 instead of 5 fully visible) as they start a little higher on the page.

jmcc

jmcc wrote: »

I am right - as are lots of others. Here's a simple explanation of why Google screwed up:

http://siliconangle.com/blog/2010/05/06/im-not-sure-im-a-fan-of-googles-new-layout/

Regards...jmcc

You're not right. Your opinion is your opinion and only that.

And your rant in your first post of this thread is just generalised garbage, misinformed and proves you don't actually know what you're talking about.

jmcc

Deleted User wrote: »

You're not right. Your opinion is your opinion and only that.

It is my opinion and I am right. I've seen more webpages and websites than you probably ever will see - from the absolutely dire to the best.

And your rant in your first post of this thread is just generalised garbage, misinformed and proves you don't actually know what you're talking about.

The problems with the Google interface are quite obvious to people who actually deal with interfaces and web design. What Google is trying to do is to provide a universal search and in doing so is breaking the elegant simplicity that people have associated with it. It is firing all results at the user in the hope that some of it will be relevant. Now perhaps to yourself and Goodshape, that's a good thing but it has the effect of overwhelming the user with options. That's a bad thing. Simple enough for you?

Regards...jmcc

yuloni

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jmcc

jmcc wrote: »

It is my opinion and I am right. I've seen more webpages and websites than you probably ever will see - from the absolutely dire to the best.

The problems with the Google interface are quite obvious to people who actually deal with interfaces and web design. What Google is trying to do is to provide a universal search and in doing so is breaking the elegant simplicity that people have associated with it. It is firing all results at the user in the hope that some of it will be relevant. Now perhaps to yourself and Goodshape, that's a good thing but it has the effect of overwhelming the user with options. That's a bad thing. Simple enough for you?

Regards...jmcc

No your opinion does not make what you say right. I work with people who've seen/made more websites than you, their opinion doesn't make them right either. It's just their opinion. See how stupid your analogy is now? It doesn't make sense.

You're still talking complete and total horse crap too. It's only natural that as the web develops, search engines will too.

You couldn't possibly cram everything underneath the search bar, or if you could, they chose not to. And I agree with the changes.

Plus have you any facts/stats to back up how these changes are in fact overwhelming users with changes?

The bottom line is, Google have seen more web pages than you and I put together and fortunately, you're not leading them into the future so feel free to moan all you like.

Why don't you whine to Google? http://www.google.ie/quality_form?q=irish&hl=en&prmd=nlbiv

yuloni

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jmcc

Deleted User wrote: »

No your opinion does not make what you say right. I work with people who've seen/made more websites than you, their opinion doesn't make them right either.

Unless they work for one of the search engine companies in site discovery or crawler/robot development, I doubt it. There is a lot of people around, such as yourself, who think that they know what they are talking about but have only seen a tiny fragment of the web and often as an end user. Working with a few web designers who produce cookiecutter websites in Joomla or Wordpress is not quite the same as surveying websites in entire TLDs.

It's only natural that as the web develops, search engines will too.

The main objective of any search engine is to give the user the results that they want quickly. Google's attraction was that it had a simple and elegant interface that did just that.

You couldn't possibly cram everything underneath the search bar, or if you could, they chose not to. And I agree with the changes.

I'm sure that Google will be overjoyed at your august approval. The old interface did not cram everything under the search bar. It organised things better than the current one does. The new one is designed to be more sticky so that it keeps Google's advertising right in front of the user often at the expense, in attention terms, of the natural results.

Plus have you any facts/stats to back up how these changes are in fact overwhelming users with changes?

Short of counting the links and options on a new results page versus an old one?

The bottom line is, Google have seen more web pages than you and I put together

An appeal to authority? The irony, in search engine terms, is probably lost on you. Google's new interface has created an opportunity for others but then I'm sure that as an entrepreneur, you would have realised that.

Regards...jmcc