Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Goober5000 on May 07, 2010, 12:46:48 am
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Let's have a techie thread like Gen. Disc. used to have all the time. :nervous:
Does anyone else despise the new Google search results layout, with the sidebar on the left? One of the things I've always liked about Google is their minimalist philosophy; you can "get in, do your job, and get out" without wading through bells and whistles. The new sidebar is a giant step away from that. It looks almost identical to Bing, and it splats a whole bunch of unnecessary configuration right where your eyes expect your search results to be.
Judging from the (http://www.mydigitallife.info/2010/04/17/how-to-get-rid-of-turn-off-or-disable-google-new-always-on-everything-search-options-sidebar/) extensive (http://webtrickz.com/removehidedisable-sidebar-in-new-google-search-results/) complaint (http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Web+Search/thread?tid=6db18439facf7bf4&hl=en) threads (http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Web+Search/thread?tid=4269aafc4ea789e0&hl=en) I've (http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Web+Search/thread?tid=4b90818242ec9579&hl=en) found (http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Web+Search/thread?tid=2031b9fa8afca71c&hl=en), I'm far from the only user to be pissed off at this move. But it remains to be seen whether they'll add an option to switch it back.
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The sidebar seems to add useful options in a way that is quickly accessible. I don't mind, it doesn't bother me.
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See, but the toolbar across the top of the page is a much more natural, and much less intrusive, way to do the same thing.
Or they could add a plus/minus toggle button to the page. But so far there is no such button.
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Does anyone else despise the new Google search results layout, with the sidebar on the left?
I do.
I also hate the way youtube is changing the UI of its player every two minutes. :rolleyes:
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Those two bars serve two different purposes. As far as search options and filtering go, the sidebar is more intuitive and natural to access than the top bar where you can store links that are rarely needed. The sidebar really doesn't bother me at all.
Edit: Oh, now we're getting to complaints about youtube UI? I didn't even really notice any of those recent UI changes until people were crying wolf over them all over.
I don't really understand all this crying when something changes. Ironically it is often for the better, but people just don't even give it a chance because it's not what they're used to. Bah, at least I try to keep an open mind and evaluate things rationally for what they are. Though in youtube's case, I just don't care much. I don't have much use for ratings or comments so they could just as well not exist.
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Does anyone else despise the new Google search results layout, with the sidebar on the left?
I do.
I also hate the way youtube is changing the UI of its player every two minutes. :rolleyes:
yeah youtube royally ****ed up its design. that "like dislike" crap is useless. can't see the rating of videos anymore, so i won't know i'm about to waste my time. comments have become an unreadable mess too. who the hell makes these kind of decisions? do they even LOOK at their crap before they roll it out?
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Never even notice until something was said. I always ignore those bars on the left and right as 90% of the time that is where pages place adds.
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Does anyone else despise the new Google search results layout, with the sidebar on the left? One of the things I've always liked about Google is their minimalist philosophy; you can "get in, do your job, and get out" without wading through bells and whistles. The new sidebar is a giant step away from that. It looks almost identical to Bing, and it splats a whole bunch of unnecessary configuration right where your eyes expect your search results to be.
Abso-friggin'-lutely. I completely and utterly hate that. Hope they switch it back, if anyone wants the cumbersome bells and whistles version they can always hit "igoogle".
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Agreed.
When I want to google something, all I want to ****ing do is type something in and see a list of results. I don't need a set of windows on the side telling me it's Aunty Tracey's birthday or some crap. People who sit at the larger desks these days seem to think that turning what is, and should be, simple "I click x and it does y." crap into "I click x and get the option to y, z, a, b and c, whilst trying to get my head around a reconfigured layout."
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1) What sidebar?
2) I use Firefox. I hadn't seen the Google homepage in over a year. :p
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(http://i659.photobucket.com/albums/uu320/FabianW/google.png)
They mean this. This is awesome, by the way.
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Mm, I guess it's alright. The news feed was made redundant by 'The Australian' being one of my homepages, however. :P
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i didn't even notice it, to be honest.
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I HAETS IT
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Edit: Oh, now we're getting to complaints about youtube UI? I didn't even really notice any of those recent UI changes until people were crying wolf over them all over.
Every time they change their website/player, they end up breaking the damned site for twenty million people (seriously, check the forums). I got lucky, this time, and it semi-works half of the time on non-featured videos. :no:
I don't really understand all this crying when something changes.
Way to open an argument with a derogatory statement. I'll bite, though. ;)
Ironically it is often for the better, but people just don't even give it a chance because it's not what they're used to. Bah, at least I try to keep an open mind and evaluate things rationally for what they are. Though in youtube's case, I just don't care much. I don't have much use for ratings or comments so they could just as well not exist.
Define "better." I find needless changes to a user-interface to be hideous at best, and detrimental to the purpose of the program at worst.
Case-in-point: Micro$oft Office's UI change. If you've ever used the previous version, the "new one" makes you want to gouge out your eyes with a makeshift shank.
I've heard that it's more efficient, but failed to see any hard evidence.
Personally, I fail to see how removing words (e.g., 'edit', 'file', 'format') that describe the action you want to occur is more efficient, under normal circumstances. [/inane rabbling]
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@topic: Meh. I don't like it, but it isn't a hindrance.
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As far as Office 2007 goes, you've got a bloody point. I totally hate that so-called ribbon. Even after using it a year, it still makes me want to slam LCD with a hammer.
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It would be fine if I didn't have to hit the "More" button on the left all the time. If there was a way to make that default to the "More" position, I'd like it. Google can't always guess that I want images or videos of a search result, and having to click more than once for something that used to be right there is a bit annoying.
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It doesn't really bother me, but I agree. I'm unlikely to use anything in it and it makes the results page feel cluttered. I wish there was a way to hide it.
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Seems like they're trying to emulate Bing a bit; which I don't think they need to do.
As others have said, I pretty much have tunnel vision on websites since that's normally where ads are placed.
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I wouldn't say, that i hate the new UI, it's just different.
A bit of a pointless addition imo, but since i ignore pretty much everything except what i'm looking for, i don't care that much.
At least they didn't get their inspiration from M$... :nervous:
Would be annoyingly cool to see a searchengine with the UI of TS. All functions hidden behind buttons. With no tooltips.
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Change frightens me. :nervous:
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The sidebar is ok. It's effect on page (DL) size is minimal, it has nothing CPU intensive (works fine even on mobile devices), and most of us have screens with miles of space in horizontal direction anyway.
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To be honest, I pretty much prefer the sidebar to a topbar.
I've been waiting for them to change their layout for a long time, since most other search engines have long since implemented some sort of sidebar, not to mention it's superior usability wise.
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I didn't notice it before now, but I can't say I care either way. I'm used to sidebars on several websites I use, so it seems like an intuitive layout. Might be handy to have filters in a more-accessible place than the top of the page.
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I hardly even noticed except that a few things were easier to get ahold of where they were a little more buried before. Looks like a good change and it isn't even that big of a change.
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I only see the new UI half the time, as my main browser uses the "hl=xx-pirate" theme, and the search results are spit out in the same format as when that 'language' was implemented.
I'm getting used to the new layout, though - it's nice for widescreen users like me, but if I was still using a 4:3 (which I was, all of 2 months ago), I'd be pissed at the intrusion on real estate. The top bar was fine.
I also hate the way youtube is changing the UI of its player every two minutes. :rolleyes:
Ha! Seconded.
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Would be annoyingly cool to see a searchengine with the UI of TS. All functions hidden behind buttons. With no tooltips.
TS?
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I must admit, I find it hard to get used to that new side bar.
Besides I can't find any interesting option in it.
Like Goob said, I liked the simplistic point of view Google had, If I wanted a prettier search page I would use Yahoo or Bing or.. whatever.
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The side bar takes a while to load. I DON'T LIKE IT!
WTF is up with waiting for the side bar to load when i'm doing an image search and just want to switch from "all images" to "large images"? The previous was part of the webpage to change search preferences, now it's a separate process entirely, AND IT'S SLOW.
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/me Googles "zero wing" and expands the sidebar.
I'm fine with it. The only issue I have is that I need to manually expand it for every search I make.
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The side bar takes a while to load. I DON'T LIKE IT!
WTF is up with waiting for the side bar to load when i'm doing an image search and just want to switch from "all images" to "large images"? The previous was part of the webpage to change search preferences, now it's a separate process entirely, AND IT'S SLOW.
Umm... what? I honestly can't tell any difference in speed compared to the old one.
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Castor, it is slower because as opposed to changing search results being built into google pages, now changing search results is a separate loading process.
It might just be me. But, i believe others share my concern over the internet becoming less and less speedy by replacing the good working stuff with more bloat. Bull**** like 100% flash websites, javascript, overuse of graphics, and when flash became a video codec (i have no qualm with advertisements because those actually help websites). And the excuse for this stuff is that most everyone has broadband. And since most everyone has broadband, it's been content overload on the increase every year. But, when you have broadband and it still takes forever to load up a site, you totally know that the advertising of the broadband company for websites appearing instantly is false because of the additional bloat in todays sites.
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it's the ads that still are the slow points for me. i don't generally hate the concept of advertising, but it has gotten WAY too expansive and invasive. ads are ****ing everywhere now, and they just continue to get more and more annoying. now you can't even watch a youtube video in peace. some sites have video ads with sound you can't turn off, and of course the ad volume is 3x higher than everything else. and of course the ads for scams are kindof funny when they pop up on legitimate websites.
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Re: Google: I don't really mind the sidebar, but some of those options seems useless to me...
Re: Youtube: I like the new player interface, but the pop up ads that aren't telling you the name of the song are annoying, as well as the fact that there are no more ratings, and the comments are mixed up.
Re: MS Word 2007: The drawing and autoshapes are so much easier to use, and it doesn't try to make you destroy your LCD when you're trying to position things. I have to agree the new "picturesque" button layout is irritating.
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It might just be me. But, i believe others share my concern over the internet becoming less and less speedy by replacing the good working stuff with more bloat. Bull**** like 100% flash websites, javascript, overuse of graphics, and when flash became a video codec (i have no qualm with advertisements because those actually help websites).
Yea, I agree with that generally. But it looks to me Google has not jumped into that boat, more like they have particularly tried to avoid that from happening when making the changes.
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Re: Youtube: I like the new player interface, but the pop up ads that aren't telling you the name of the song are annoying, as well as the fact that there are no more ratings, and the comments are mixed up.
If you have an iPod Touch, you can word around this. Also available are some Greasemonkey scripts for Firefox that will NOT bring back the ability to give star ratings, but will instead show the aggregate rating of the video in question. Judging by the fact that these scripts still work on videos uploaded after April 1, I presume that all Google did was remove the two- to four-star options, changed the one-star option to Dislike, and changed the five-star option to Like.
Regardless, I will no longer rate any videos on YouTube until they bring the star ratings back, which is unlikely.
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Regardless, I will no longer rate any videos on YouTube until they bring the star ratings back, which is unlikely.
Take that, random person on the internet trying to grab attention by posting a vid on youtube! I shall punish you for Google's mistakes! Feel my wrath!
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i rarely used anything but 1 or 5 anyway. i don't go randomly clicking around on videos, i only go straight to ones i want to see. usually that ends up being 5, with the 1 thrown in when some retard has given a misleading title or done something like replace the audio with donkey noises. (yes that has happened)
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Which I think is why Google made that change.
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but i like seeing the "average" rating. hell even being able to see ANY rating would be great, they don't show the likes/dislikes unless you vote. i didn't do it for EVERY video either.
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youtube: great, much prefer thumbs to stars
google: indifferent, I use bing more nowadays.
configured firefox to use it when i search in address bar even
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Which I think is why Google made that change.
Precisely. There was a post on the YouTube blog about the changes which contained a graph of the average ratings given to videos under the old five-star system. As you'd expect, there were massive spikes for 1-star and 5-star ratings, while the others were pretty much negligible. The new system simply formalizes what was already happening under the old system.
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there was still no need to change it though. the like/dislike added NOTHING, but it did take away, however small it may be. and there's still the major issue of not being able to see the rating. i could look at a video in the list, see 1/2 stars, and not waste my time before.
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However, seeing the rating also predisposes viewers based on the rating alone. If several people were to give a great but seldom viewed video bad star ratings, it would keep people from watching it, or influence what rating they do give it. Without seeing ratings beforehand, watchers objectively evaluate the video on merits they see, not what someone else thinks.
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the like/dislike added NOTHING, but it did take away, however small it may be.
Ah, but if what it took away is not statistically sigificant, then what does it matter?
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However, seeing the rating also predisposes viewers based on the rating alone. If several people were to give a great but seldom viewed video bad star ratings, it would keep people from watching it, or influence what rating they do give it. Without seeing ratings beforehand, watchers objectively evaluate the video on merits they see, not what someone else thinks.
that would be fine if the ratings actually matter at all. i'd rather not have to watch crap than have slightly lower ratings.
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/me visits YouTube.
Hey, did Google just add a like/dislike bar beside the buttons?
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In other news, Wikipedia has been ruined forever as well (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:UsabilityInitiativePrefSwitch).
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Not really, because they prominently featured an option to switch back. I was impressed that they did that, and said so on the feedback page.
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Editing toolbar improvements: We have reorganized the editing toolbar to make easier to use. Now, formatting pages is simpler and more intuitive.
Oh, phooey. Real editors enter Wiki syntax with no aids.
Reminds me of this, really:
(http://www.badassoftheweek.com/harrison-wikipedia.gif)
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/me visits YouTube.
Hey, did Google just add a like/dislike bar beside the buttons?
Yes. That wasn't there, before.
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I could be crazy, but google's language tools seem to have improved about 200% (in accuracy).
I wrote a fairly simple message, translated it into French and then translated that back into English and it was almost identical to what I put in at first!
Layout-wise, I'm indifferent. It's still cleaner than yahoo.com.
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If possible, try translating to Japanese and back. :p
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In other news, Wikipedia has been ruined forever as well (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:UsabilityInitiativePrefSwitch).
Looks just fine to me. I can barely notice the difference.
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I should have put sarcasm tags around that. The new wiki layout is quit nice.
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I really should have caught that. :p
*falls into sarchasm*
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The difference being, if I'm reading correctly, that Wikipedia just added more features and improved usability.
Youtube did exactly the opposite.
And vanilla Google is not supposed to have more features, it's supposed to be fast, simple and minimalistic. If you want more, use iGoogle.
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Actually, no. Wikipedia moved one of its most important UI elements (the little search box) from the sidebar to the top navigation bar. I would have thought that that one would get more reactions.
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the only thing i've noticed is the logo is shifted to the right and overlaps with titles.
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The wikipedia search box moving to the top of the page reminds me of microsoft changing the start menu picture in vista and people claimed they didn't know where the start menu was.
Let the dumbards come to use wikipedia, get confused now, and have a head slam on concrete realization experience.
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The wikipedia search box moving to the top of the page reminds me of microsoft changing the start menu picture in vista and people claimed they didn't know where the start menu was.
:wtf: Wow. Seriously? Although I did have someone use System Restore cause they couldn't figure out how to get the Start Menu moved back from the top where they accidentally moved it. :lol:
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I rarely even use Wikipedia proper for searching purposes. My Firefox search bar gets a frequent workout.
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youtube: great, much prefer thumbs to stars
google: indifferent, I use bing more nowadays.
configured firefox to use it when i search in address bar even
I prefer stars, because I'm less likely to thumbs up something I don't really really like... also seems too much like facebook for my tastes.
Have to concur on the google issue, I find bing more interesting. Maybe I just don't like "minimalist." Too Apple-y.
I could be crazy, but google's language tools seem to have improved about 200% (in accuracy).
I wrote a fairly simple message, translated it into French and then translated that back into English and it was almost identical to what I put in at first!
Layout-wise, I'm indifferent. It's still cleaner than yahoo.com.
Yeah it sucks **** for Korean though.
-m
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The wikipedia search box moving to the top of the page reminds me of microsoft changing the start menu picture in vista and people claimed they didn't know where the start menu was.
This reminds me of Google shifting the volume control in the YouTube player from the right side to the left side.
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If possible, try translating to Japanese and back. :p
I wasn't going to, but then I found something intriguing.
Compare this post: http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=10761.0
To this one I made just now: http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=69478.0
Eight years make quite a difference. EDIT: Ok, technically, I used google this time versus babelfish originally, but they're probably similar enough. Formatting took a bit of a hit though...
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:bump:
I didn't mind the original issue discussed here that much, but the new changes they made this morning are much worse. The background image adds unnecessary clutter and I especially hate that fade-in effect. There doesn't seem to be any simple way to disable it. Google is looking like Bing now. :doubt:
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It'll be gone tomorrow.
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It had better be.
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I didn't mind the original issue discussed here that much, but the new changes they made this morning are much worse. The background image adds unnecessary clutter and I especially hate that fade-in effect. There doesn't seem to be any simple way to disable it. Google is looking like Bing now. :doubt:
My thoughts exactly.
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The image seems to have just been a "look, this is what you can do!" thing. It's gone away for me.
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what image?
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Define "better." I find needless changes to a user-interface to be hideous at best, and detrimental to the purpose of the program at worst.
Case-in-point: Micro$oft Office's UI change. If you've ever used the previous version, the "new one" makes you want to gouge out your eyes with a makeshift shank.
I've heard that it's more efficient, but failed to see any hard evidence.
Personally, I fail to see how removing words (e.g., 'edit', 'file', 'format') that describe the action you want to occur is more efficient, under normal circumstances. [/inane rabbling]
I agree on the words describing the action. A lot more faster to decipher than an image or icon. I confess I like the new things they have put in Paint in Windows 7 and there the ribbon UI almost works so that I almost don't dislike it, but I would still prefer "File" instead of a small icon. I suspect this is because the number of buttons is small enough that there are no mode switches in the UI and all things can be seen at the same time. I haven't touched the new Excels or Words even with a long stick however. Should the user support forcefully upgrade my Office at work, I'll bite the long loading time bullet and switch to Open Office. I also found a way to get Windows 7 to look like Classic XP; a small modification which has already saved my nerves a number of times.
Quote from Solatar
Seems like they're trying to emulate Bing a bit; which I don't think they need to do.
As others have said, I pretty much have tunnel vision on websites since that's normally where ads are placed.
I have noted the Google UI change, but I don't feel such great resentment towards it. There was simply no need for that in my opinion, but I can do with it. I normally prefer 4:3 monitors, but you brought up an interesting point: Now that there is screen estate available, what do web pages do with it? Push in adds! The result is you actually have a useful screen ratio approaching back the old 4:3, but less vertical space!
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:bump:
I didn't mind the original issue discussed here that much, but the new changes they made this morning are much worse. The background image adds unnecessary clutter and I especially hate that fade-in effect. There doesn't seem to be any simple way to disable it. Google is looking like Bing now. :doubt:
Agreed. Fortunately, they cancelled the change early due to user complaints.
Which begs the question of why they didn't make the sidebar optional due to user complaints. One article made a very interesting speculation -- Google won't budge on features that are "crucial to its bottom line". Which sort of violates its own "don't be evil" slogan. :doubt:
A better way to roll out the background feature would have been to add a prominent "change back to white" button, just like Meebo (http://www.meebo.com), on the days that they show full-background ads, add a prominent "change back to blue" button.
(For the record, I don't believe the VP's explanation that "a bug" prevented the button from being shown. :p)
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The one thing about Google that you have to note is that they tend to be deaf towards suggestions made by the community.
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Agreed. Fortunately, they cancelled the change early due to user complaints.
Really? I got the impression it was always intended to be a one-day thing to make people aware of the feature.
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Google has a sidebar now? LOL....
I use google a lot for finding research papers and articles... but the new layout doesn't bother me... since i hadn't even noticed that there was a sidebar before reading this post (LOL).
/shrugs. To me Google still works as it always did: Punch in your query and browse the results. It's not like there is a lack of space to display the full width of entries either.
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Why would I want line drawings of My Lai, anyway?
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I for one like being able to but my own custom background image for google
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Really? I got the impression it was always intended to be a one-day thing to make people aware of the feature.
They planned for it to be 24 hours, but cancelled it after 14.
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Let's have a techie thread like Gen. Disc. used to have all the time. :nervous:
Does anyone else despise the new Google search results layout, with the sidebar on the left? One of the things I've always liked about Google is their minimalist philosophy; you can "get in, do your job, and get out" without wading through bells and whistles. The new sidebar is a giant step away from that. It looks almost identical to Bing, and it splats a whole bunch of unnecessary configuration right where your eyes expect your search results to be.
Judging from the (http://www.mydigitallife.info/2010/04/17/how-to-get-rid-of-turn-off-or-disable-google-new-always-on-everything-search-options-sidebar/) extensive (http://webtrickz.com/removehidedisable-sidebar-in-new-google-search-results/) complaint (http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Web+Search/thread?tid=6db18439facf7bf4&hl=en) threads (http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Web+Search/thread?tid=4269aafc4ea789e0&hl=en) I've (http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Web+Search/thread?tid=4b90818242ec9579&hl=en) found (http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Web+Search/thread?tid=2031b9fa8afca71c&hl=en), I'm far from the only user to be pissed off at this move. But it remains to be seen whether they'll add an option to switch it back.
Wait...Google has a toolbar on their main page? I use Firefox start and it doesn't. Neither does my iGoogle page with a spiffy time sensitive WoW theme.
And I just looked at the regular Google page and don't see a toolbar other than the one that fades in at the top if you mouse away from the search field.
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I said sidebar, not toolbar; and search results, not main page. :p
If you look at either of the first two links in that quote, you can see a screenshot side-by-side comparison.