Google Search Goes Minimal

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For some reason, Google decided to remove all that clutter from its Google Search homepage. And considering there was hardly anything to remove I can’t say that I am overjoyed about the change. Do we really need a Google Search homepage that minimal?

The new homepage looks like it’s 2000 again, although it’s cool in a way. Returning back to basics could be fun for Google, but to the end user that is already using quite a few services is annoying. One has to type in a few extra words to get where he’s going. I’m used to being able to be able to access various parts of my Google account from the Google Search homepage and naturally I don’t exactly like the minimal version.

To tell you the truth I don’t have Google Search set as my homepage but so many people do. I perform my searches by typing what I’m looking for in Mozilla’s or Safari’s Google Search bar. And that’s how I end up on the Google Search homepage. And that’s where I am able to go to Google Reader, Gmail, Image Search or Google Docs.

I scared you there for a second, didn’t I? Well go ahead and relax as everything is still ok in the Google world. Google hasn’t really changed anything. It has just proven a point about it’s business. After all Google Search is the core of everything Google-related. All the links are there at your disposal and you’ll still be able to explore various Google apps. They just happen to fade in for those people that simply come to Google’s homepage to perform various searches. Simply move the mouse and the links you have gotten used to will appear immediately.

Therefore your whole Google experience has not changed and you won’t have to replace Googling with Binging. Google “is all about getting you where you are going faster — how could [they] launch something that potentially slowed users down?”

Now that Google proved that it can play with our feelings and influence the way we go about our business online, we can return to our day-to-day lives knowing that Google Search hasn’t really changed and we still can find out everything we want about the weirdest stuff published on the Internets.