The New Google. Yes, Google are finally getting rid of the 1990′s style homepage and search results. In this post I explain the features, and how to get the snazzy new homepage. But one question in my mind, do the new features actually make a improvement into search experience?
The Homepage
The Homepage seems to keep the old Google standard homepage design, but more tweaked to the modern world. It has big blue buttons for the search and “I’m feeling lucky” buttons. The logo also saw a change, which makes it look more “fancy” in my opinion. The links on the page to Google Services we use everyday have also changed, they have a lighter shade of blue.
The Sidebar
So, Google are experimenting with a new sidebar for search results. It includes links to all the Google services such as News, Maps, and more. It also has some new features to make your searching a lot easier. For example, you can new preview a snapshot of search results, you can look for images in search results (this would be a nice feature for Google Images) and a whole lot more. Their is also a nice effect when you open and close the menus on the sidebar, which I like lots.
So, how do I get this?
Well, it’s not really been officially released by Google, and you need to use a simple Javascript hack in your browser.
Go to google.com If you get redirected to a localized version of Google, go to google.com/ncr. Then simply add this text to your address bar, hit enter, and reload the page:
javascript:void(document.cookie=”PREF=ID=20b6e4c2f44943bb:U=4bf292d46faad806:TM=1249677602:LM=1257919388:S=odm0Ys-53ZueXfZG;path=/; domain=.google.com”);
If that doesn’t work, you can try copying it from here: http://tinypaste.com/fd2d3
Make sure you remove the google.com bit out of the URL first or it won’t work)
Then, you may need to refresh the page a few times for it to work properly but you should see the new Google homepage. That JavaScript hack puts a small cookie into your browser, so it loads that homepage every time. If you have disabled cookies, you need to put that JavaScript hack in every time you reload your browser.
Enjoy 