The reason the new design is so much worse is that it uses the most valuable space on the screen, the left side (since we read left to right), for stuff users don't care much about. What users care about most on a page of search results is the search results. Those should get priority. Instead the prime space is given to stuff that's boilerplate, or only tangentially relevant, or both.<p>I'm surprised Google would make a mistake of such magnitude. Anyone who's read Tufte would know not to do this. They've effectively reduced the data-ink ratio of the page, when you weight each pixel by its proximity to the upper left corner.<p><a href="http://www.infovis-wiki.net/index.php/Data-Ink_Ratio" rel="nofollow">http://www.infovis-wiki.net/index.php/Data-Ink_Ratio</a><p><a href="http://inspiredimpressions.files.wordpress.com/2006/04/Google%20heat%20map.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://inspiredimpressions.files.wordpress.com/2006/04/Googl...</a><p>Oddly enough, it would actually be better if the left bar were entirely boilerplate, because that would make it easier to tune it out.<p><a href="http://www.useit.com/eyetracking/eyetracking_corporate_site_about_us.png" rel="nofollow">http://www.useit.com/eyetracking/eyetracking_corporate_site_...</a><p>Then the new design would merely waste space. Filling the left side of the page not merely with crap, but with <i>changing</i> crap, is the worst case scenario.
I find the sidebar annoying, but perhaps more so because we have used google without it for so long. I tend to agree with techcrunch that there is redundancy in the side and top bar. New logo is good, search box is ok...but this modern style of it and the buttons seems out of place and more distracting then anything.<p>The search features on the side are nice...but I used them so rarely in the past and don't see myself using them any more now. It seems like google wants me to spend more time searching then clicking links, when in reality I usually use google as a quick 10 second shortcut to finding info. The last time I clicked "next" on a search was........a long time ago.
<i>we tried to take all the things we strive for at Google and make them better: powerful technology, snappy results, simplicity and a fun and quirky personality</i><p>Yes! This is totally what was missing for me. I had great search results from Google every time, but where was the <i>fun</i>? Where was the <i>quirky personality</i> damn it?
Is there a way to hide the left hand column? I actually find it really distracting.<p>Also in FF 3.6.3 the text is not centered vertically in the search box. It's an FF CSS issue. I've seen it a few times before.
The biggest change in their redesign has nothing to do with the new logo, redundancy in navigation (because that can't be an issue) or making the different search tools more discoverable.<p>The biggest change is the top left position of the first search result relative to the top left position of the document. In other words, the average scanning pattern has completely changed with the addition of a fixed side bar.<p>It will take a lot of people a long time to adjust and its effectiveness can't be judged by a couple of hours of usage. It's not unlikely to assume Google is very willing to take a slight hit in this area and win in the discoverability of their different ways to use Google, hopefully, eventually improving a person's overal searching efficiency.<p>Time will tell, but we all know Google tests these things through and through.
I hid the left sidebar and expanded the results column by adding the following snippet to 'userContent.css' in my 'chrome' directory (for Firefox).<p><pre><code> @-moz-document domain(google.com) {
#leftnav {
display:none !important;
}
#center_col {
margin-left: 0 !important;
margin-right: 0 !important;
}
}
</code></pre>
I think the ads to the right were already hidden by adblock, so you may need to tweak this if you want to preserve ads for some reason.
I just noticed this redesign removed a feature I used all the time - you used to be able to type a word into Google, and then hit the "definition" link. As far as I can see, they removed that.
The search box on the left is dreadful. Why can't this be hidden the way it could (for me) yesterday? It's almost headache inducing (although that sounds crazy), it's like my eyes don't know what to do...they've had almost 10 years worth of training showing them to look in that <i>exact</i> spot on my screen, and now it has changed...<p>It's really, really distracting. If I can find out a way of hiding it, I absolutely will.
From a visual standpoint, I think the most interesting change is the shading on the search bar, which makes it look raised on the page. It looks a little awkward to me, I'm sure because almost all form inputs are either flat or sunken into the page. I do think being sunken into the page is a more appropriate metaphor... I wonder how they came to that decision.
As screens are now coming in a wider format i.e 16:9, there is generally a large amount of wasted space at the sides in a lot of webpages. Adding the sidebar is making better use of that space.
Stylish plugin to the rescue!<p>First I hide all the left column sidebar nonsense with adblock.<p>Then I do this:<p><pre><code> #center_col {margin:0 !important;}
.gl,.sla {text-decoration:underline !important;}
.tsf-p {width:65% !important;}
</code></pre>
Problem solved. Back to wide.
TechCrunch's take: <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/06/google-redundant-ui/" rel="nofollow">http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/06/google-redundant-ui/</a> (tl;dr side bar + top bar = redundancy)
I really like the left side bar. I prefer it to the top bar when it comes to focusing my results - its closer and has more options. As for the design — it feels cleaner, but thats subjective.
I'm feeling too much blue! Cached and similar links for example could have been gray instead of the blue variant. IMHO, those links need not be so prominent.