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Preview Google's New Search Results Page 191

Posted by Zonk from the meet-the-new-boss-same-as-the-old-boss dept.
ubermiester writes "Ars Technica demonstrates how to copy and paste a bit of JavaScript to preview a facelifted Google. Ars points out that 'the changes are minimal, but they give some insight into Google's plans.'" I thought we already knew those: world domination.
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Preview Google's New Search Results Page More

Preview Google's New Search Results Page

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  • World Domination? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Eightyford ( 893696 ) on Monday March 27, 2006 @03:19PM (#15004837) Homepage
    Apparently the first step towards world domination is to move the category tabs to the left of the search results. Ooh, I'm scared too.
    • The next step will be to flash quick subliminal messages on the screen when you mouse-over selected pixels in the search results...Urgh, actually that's my plan...never mind!

    • It's amazing isn't it! (Score:4, Funny)

      by Expert Determination ( 950523 ) on Monday March 27, 2006 @04:44PM (#15005594)
      The best minds in the world, all of whom have been hire by Google, came up with that new UI. I'm simply blown away by how good it is. It needs to be reported in every single media outlet on the planet because it's so earth shattering. You've really gotta hand it to Google - it makes the efforts of mere mortals look paltry by comparison. I don't know why /. even has news stories about other companies.

    • The second step is to break globalisation (Score:4, Insightful)

      by DancesWithBlowTorch ( 809750 ) on Monday March 27, 2006 @06:22PM (#15006551)
      Google has changed a lot in its interface over the past year. Has anyone else had the following problem?:

      I'm living in one country but want to see results from another (in my case, I'm in Germany but I want to see English results). In the good old days, google had a radiobutton that let you choose between "results from the web" and "results in German" (or, rather, "Deutsche Ergebnisse"). But not anymore. Now, even if I explicitly type "www.google.com" in my address bar (firefox, in English, with locale set to US), the stupid server hands me back a google.de redirect. The radiobutton is gone. So is the point in the preferences where I could, back in the day, decide that I wanted results in all languages. It's been replaced by a list of checkboxes where I can, in principle say I only want results in English. But, heavens, I want results in German AND English. Okay, so I check "English" and "German".

      Guess what I get? A preordered list with all the German results first (since I'm on google.de. What else could I want anyway?), then the English ones. Like, first the result from de.wikipedia.org, while the English one is nowhere to be seen.

      Hey Google! Some people don't live in their homecountries. Yet they fucking want to see results in their own language. It's completely beyond me how a company that has fostered globalisation so much could possibly exclude all ex-pats from their interface.

      I've now changed to yahoo (which still has the "results from the web" button). Let's see how long until they will abandon it, too.
      • Click on "Go to Google.com" or "Google.com in English" on the home page (bottom right)? Otherwise, try going to www.google.com/ncr [google.com] (where these links go to). You'll need to allow cookies so that Google doesn't redirect you back to your country page again.

        You can also set your preferred language for search results in the Preferences page.
      • But not anymore. Now, even if I explicitly type "www.google.com" in my address bar (firefox, in English, with locale set to US), the stupid server hands me back a google.de redirect

        So just block all cookies from google.com - you'll never have any problems again. You should be blocking the cookies anyway - if you don't, google stores your search history on their server, which isn't exactly my idea of privacy ...
      • Could this be related to the fact that Germany requires Google to block certain sites (Nazi memorabilia, Holocaust denial, anti-Israel material) from appearing in the search results?
    • Sweet,
      The person whomanages PREF=ID=fb7740f107311e46 can now look at all of the search terms entered by slash dot readers.

      A back door by the Department of Justice to capture Google search queries?

      comp.lang.ja...ogrammer
      microsoft.pu...x.avalon
      microsoft.pu...indowsxp
      alt.personals.spanking
      soc.sexuality.spanking
      aus.comms.mobile
      comp.os.linux.announce
      comp.lang.functional
      comp.editors
      comp.lang.scheme.c

  • To be honest... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by trogdor8667 ( 817114 ) on Monday March 27, 2006 @03:20PM (#15004851)
    I've read the article on the Ars Technica forum, and all the comments there. I'm inclined to think this is a nice change, but honestly, all they did was move the top links to a bar on the left. Its nice, and will probably look slightly better on my widescreen laptop, but its such a small change, I doubt many people will notice once it goes live.

    • Re:To be honest... (Score:5, Funny)

      by user24 ( 854467 ) on Monday March 27, 2006 @03:23PM (#15004876)
      I doubt many people will notice once it goes live.

      you kidding? this is google we're talking about, GOOGLE!!
      It's a revolutionary new approach to search, it's the next best thing, it's marvellous, it's hip cool and groovy, sheesh.. 'no-one will notice' indeed...
      • The reason I say no one will notice is because, if you read the comments on the Ars Technica forums, apparently, this has been randomly appearing for some users for about two months now, and no one has really said anything until now.
        • Thank you for mentioning this. I thought Google was going nuts, but I never saw it again, so I thought I was going nuts.

          At least if I'm going nuts, it's going to manifest itself in some other, more interesting (or at least entertaining) way.

      • Re:To be honest... (Score:5, Funny)

        by CodeBuster ( 516420 ) on Monday March 27, 2006 @03:55PM (#15005153)
        You forgot the part where it integrates people centered applications on a collaborative platform with total quality management propagated across the enterprise while simultaneously increasing productivity, lowering costs, and solving world hunger seamlessly.
      • Well, I've been getting my Google results in this form for about 2 weeks now (when signed in).

        I did in fact notice it -- it shifts the search results up and to the right slightly -- but other than being slightly annoyed that my unchanging Google had changed, didn't think much of it. I'm not quite sure how this is the big deal that it is being made out to be. It gives a bit more room for Google to link related services, but otherwise . . . meh.

      • I doubt it'll ever go live.

        Remember the google viewer [google.com]? that was exceptionally cool, but has now dissappeared, google suggest was even cooler, but still hasn't made it to the homepage.

        It would be nice if google supported these projects instead of just saying "oh hey, we did this cool thing too, but don't get too attached, we're going to pull the feature in a few months without any warning. It's called free market research, chumps"...

        ah well.

        • It's called free market research, chumps."

          That's actually too charitable. They're not even doing market research. Google employees are encouraged to spend time on their own pet projects.. It doesn't seem to be very hard to get your project added to the public site, especially if it's a search engine enhancement. So every time somebody in Google has a bright idea, it gets handed off to us to play with. Which is nice if you like trying out new tech, but also kind of unprofessional, since you never know whet

      • you can bet your house on it will be in beta(the online version of being afraid of commitment). :)
      • Did anyone notice when they started redirecting search result URLS through their server so they could know which link you clicked on a year or two ago? Well, some people noticed, such as me. But, not many people seemed to care. That was only done for certain people though. Is that how this was found? And is it ever going to be implemented?

    • I think they're really trying to free up more vertical space for search results. Why? Because the search results have been getting crowded out by other things at the top (not just sponsored links, but links to local searches, maps, etc.) and bottom of the screen. Moving the categories to the side, making the Google logo smaller (it's now 135 by 50 instead of 150 by 55) and reducing the amount of whitespace at the margins all let them squeeze more into the vertical space.

      They may also be able to play with

    • I wonder when Google will change their HTML to be compliant with the W3C recommendations? It is amazing that they are so far behind other companies with regard to markup quality.
      • IIRC they do this to save bandwidth, all those "'s add up.
        • Yes, I'm sure it's to save bandwidth.

          Some quick math:

          I analyzed the source of the result page for "w3c recommendations". After looking at the page in the validator, I decided the following things were missing:

          Two <img> tag src= attributes. Assuming a three-letter filename, that's (src="xxx.gif")*2 = 26 bytes.

          Three <script> tag type= attributes. That's (type="text/javascript")*3 = 66 bytes.

          Two <style> tag type= attributes. That's (type="text/css")*2 = 30 bytes.

          205 attributes in the header a

          • You forgot to factor in gzip compression and carry the two
          • that means that Google saves almost 144 GB of data transfer EVERY DAY

            Google's logo alone is more than 10x that; and the advertisment for the Google toolbar is more than 3x that. At almost 16KB each, the homepage views alone are almost 3.2TB per day. Even a single query rarely produces a results page under 32K (add it up), which, added to the homepage views, means that Google is transferring over 9.6TB per day in searches alone.

            Because, as you know, 148GB of data transfer per day costs so much. 2000GB of dat
    • Well I think I'd notice. CNN's website just went from their vertical section interface to a horizontal one, and I noticed it immediately. Strange that they would do this just while google dabbles with the opposite. Coincidence?

    • Re:To be honest... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by chrisd ( 1457 ) * <chrisd@dibona.com> on Monday March 27, 2006 @05:10PM (#15005877) Homepage
      We test interface tweaks all the time to see how people 'like' them. Doesn't mean we will or will not deploy them. So....Nothing (much) to see here, move along :-)
      • Perhaps Google could reallocate some of this labor to fixing AdWords so advertisers can more easily spend money. Some of my client accounts take weeks to get new creatives approved. And right now the TrafficEstimatorService in the API is *DOWN*.
    • This is a huge advancement. I just found out that sex is as big in news as it is on the web. Also, you can get just as much sex locally as on froogle. Damn that internet is useful.

  • old news (Score:5, Informative)

    by gEvil (beta) ( 945888 ) on Monday March 27, 2006 @03:21PM (#15004860)
    Ummm, they've been experimenting with this for about two months now. I get a results page in this layout about once a week or so.

    • Old news++ (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Yup, I've seen it many times, too. No Digg.

  • not much (Score:2, Interesting)

    by carsonc ( 792247 ) *
    it's good in that you know if it's worth looking at the other categories without clicking on anything.
    • Yeah, except is doesn't seem to work. I Google for my name (an uncommon name) -- the little bar charts indicate that most hits are under "web" (that's correct), followed by "news", "froogle" and "groups". BUT... when I go to "news", "froogle" or "groups" I get "Your search - "{my name}" - did not match any documents." I never have any Google hits under those subsections, so why the misleading bars?
      I assume this is why this search page only available if you 'cheat'.
  • Slipping some away from the much loved and extolled absolute minimist page design to fit some mroe functionality in? I do agree though, definitely the first step to global domination.

  • I, for one... (Score:3, Funny)

    by SisyphusShrugged ( 728028 ) <me@@@igerard...com> on Monday March 27, 2006 @03:23PM (#15004877) Homepage
    I, for one, welcome our new column re-arranging overlords.
  • Why does this remind me of discussions I've witnessed about whether Greedo shoots first?

  • How does one go about "discovering" this code? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by keilinw ( 663210 ) * on Monday March 27, 2006 @03:26PM (#15004893) Homepage Journal
    Very interesting... and somewhat disappointing. I was expecting to see a completely new interface, not the addition of a bar on the left side of the screen. Don't get me wrong, this is useful and a bit attractive.

    However, what I'd really be interested in is whether or not someone outside of Google could have come up with this code themselves? Or, is it an inside job? Or perhaps it is an "unofficial" preview release.

    What is the /. communities response to this....I'm dying to know!

    Matthew Wong
    http://www.themindofmatthew.com [themindofmatthew.com]
  • "I thought we already knew those: world domination."

    I thought their goal was to spend all day smoking pot, eating Chips Ahoy, and watching Caliente or Martha. Oh wait, that used to be mine. From what I remember, college was a good thing.

  • Changing it back. (Score:2, Informative)

    by soulctcher ( 581951 )
    For those who made the change and want the old way back, it's as simple as clearing the google.com PREF cookie in your browser. If you don't know how to clear a single cookie, then clear all of them and it will be included.
  • Anyone else agree the new interface is cluttered? The left side of your screen draws attention away from the organic and paid results.

    Delete the cookie name PREF if you want to go back to the old interface.
    • Personally I like this change. Specifically, the ability to see if I've gotten hits in newsgroups, which can often be more helpful than the official company answers that google web search finds. Many newer monitors have a wider aspect, so it isn't really taking room away from my results.
    • [goes to look]

      Yep, and I don't like it.

      I can't tell from the screenie, and don't use js in my main browser so we ain't goin' there, but if they screw up the table structure the way they did with the last change, it will render some links unreachable for some browsers (you'll be able to SEE the link, but not CLICK on it).

  • not new (maybe slashdot new; but not new) (Score:3, Insightful)

    by amazon10x ( 737466 ) on Monday March 27, 2006 @03:30PM (#15004932)
    Uh... this isn't that new. Google has been showing up like this on my mom's laptop (widescreen so it's a big benefit) for about 3 or 4 months now.

    I guess google must've detected that it was widescreen and changed the layout so that it i smore efficient in using the viewing window when fullscreened.

  • Because this interface leaves a lot of extra room in the left pane, it's probably a precursor to customized search categories (e.g. the ability to add a blog search, video search, financial search, scholar search).

  • Wow (Score:5, Funny)

    by ElephanTS ( 624421 ) on Monday March 27, 2006 @03:31PM (#15004941)
    Thanks /. it was amazing to see some of the text move left. Don't forget to keep us posted about other exciting changes such as Google's got a new coke machine or whatever. Us hackers get off on that, it's in our blood.

    • Us hackers get off on that, it's in our blood.

      No, we get off on being anal retentive and finding things like grammar errors.

  • In the article the assumption is, it's to get you to look at googles 'other parts'

    I say it's to accomodate wide aspect monitors better.

  • Wouldn't it have been much cooler if the new Google was coloured text on a black background? [jeffs-icons.com]

  • This proves that the real brains behind Google is The Brain

    Pinky's job is to come up with mispellings of words so you get somewhat meaningful "Did You Mean:" suggestions!

  • green bars? (Score:2, Funny)

    by dotpavan ( 829804 )
    Whats with the green bars? I first thought Google was showing the DHS terror threat color code, which is now green, meaning SAFE?

    /sarcasm

  • Really, Slashdot, are you pandering after the Digg crowd with trivia like this? Slashdot set the standard for technology news so please give us news content with some substance. Then we can have some intelligent discussions instead of this one about how trivial this story is.
  • "First, the relocation allows for the actual search results to start higher up on the page. This is good because it means that users can expect to see more per "window.""

    This isn't really true. Although the results start a bit higher up on the page, there is now a huge chunk of empty space on the left side. So, no, you are not getting "more [results] per window".
  • Are these Google Pre-Hacks -- hacks for things that aren't released yet? What do you call those things?

  • Meh (Score:2)

    by user24 ( 854467 )
    I like the 'new' layout, but it'd be nice if it was present on the images, groups, etc pages, to have the navigation skip around all over the place is very annoying.

    also, they could fit more on the sidebar; like including book search, and, well pretty much everything at http://www.google.com/options/ [google.com]

    An ajax interface would actually kick ass here; click 'images' and it loads the image results right into the results frame.

    Also, can anyone tell me what the green bars to the right of each search mean? I would h
  • Can we get a Google section, please? That way, I can turn it off and not see any more ramblings about a company that is waaaay too hyped for my taste. Thanks much.
  • Poit! Narf! What're we gonna do tonight, Brin?

    -F
  • When you click on, say, "Images" on the left of the search results, you see the images, but then the sidebar is gone.... You should be able to click on Images, then Groups, then back to Web without it taking away your sidebar. It breaks the paradigm. But perhaps that's due for this being a beta thing.

  • Unlimited cookies in google code (Score:3, Funny)

    by saboola ( 655522 ) on Monday March 27, 2006 @04:15PM (#15005322)
    up up down down left right left right B A Try it. It works.
  • Something weird for me, every 50 searches or so, it goes straight to google.com/ig (the portal) when I hit google.com. Strange stuff.
  • world domination? I think Google is more into moon domination [google.com]
  • MS and Yahoo better do something equally innovative to catch up. Google's really leading the pack now!

  • Apparently just a mockup (Score:3, Informative)

    by aniefer ( 910494 ) on Monday March 27, 2006 @04:52PM (#15005669) Journal
    It appears that the green bars beside the other categories don't actually portray the number of search results for the other categories. They remain the same from search to search, even when a given search returns no results.
  • How about instead of just making this the default layout, let us choose our own with CSS. Firefox allows you to select alternate style sheets, so why not just have this new layout be one of the options.
  • Earlier today I noticed some other irregularities in google's search results. They seem to be a bit manipulative in the results they present. I've noted them in my blog: http://www.achievo.org/blog/archives/34-Google-sta rting-to-think-for-me.html [achievo.org]
  • ...when you could just make those images larger and set them as a background for the text? Only reasons I can think of to not do it is that it might require a different color for the link text, and you would waste some space making all the links the same length as the text of the longest one. That said it would take up a lot less space than the current idea.

  • Clusty!!! (Score:2, Informative)

    by codefungus ( 463647 )
    Remember Turbo10.com? And how much it's useless? Well, there is another search engine that I actually find myself useing. It's called clusty.com. There are 2 really cool features of this search engine. First, it clusters stuff. Like, let's say you are searching linux desktop. You go to google and search, you get all kinds of stuff...pretty useful I agree. However, you search clusty, and the results are broken down by subject...operating system, kernel...desktop. Very cool for research.
    The second cool featu
  • Did anyone try this with Firefox? I tried with FF 1.5 and it didn't work =/

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