Google Logo Changes Again, Hinting RT Search? 212
siliconbits writes "The Google homepage is sporting a new logo that changes color as you type, and it is likely a big hint as to what the company will announce at its search event on Wednesday. When you arrive on the search giant homepage today, you will be greeted with a gray Google doodle."
google.co.uk (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Same for me. Also for the particles. Do only USAns get to see doodles at google.com? Or were these only shown at google.co.uk? (I haven't seen them at google.nl either.)
Re: (Score:2)
A lot of times the national google pages lag behind the .com version.
Another little "quirk" seems to be that, as an example, images.google.se doesn't have the new single-page search result view yet while images.google.com does (this can be circumvented most of the time by changing the search preferences, something I tend to do since a lot of times letting it decide on its own that I want to give priority to swedish search results means that tech-related searches I make which give me the right page at the to
Re: (Score:2)
We had the particles on Google.de yesterday but it did not work with all browsers. I thought that it had something to do with the IFA.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internationale_Funkausstellung_Berlin [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
I haven't seen anything yesterday or today at either location.
Re: (Score:2)
Try clearing your cookies. Google does special tests for some people. By using a national site that you normally don't use, you force Google to treat you as a random new user, as it won't see your cookies for the main site.
For example, I do not get the gray typing logo in my main browser, but I do get suggestions with interleaved results as I type in the box. On a fresh browser profile, I get the typing logo and no results in suggestions.
Re: (Score:2)
'Google Instant' as they're calling it is working for me right now - http://www.google.com/instant/#utm_campaign=launch&utm_medium=et&utm_source=rpp [google.com]
Have fun, seems to be more usable than I originally expected.
Re: (Score:2)
Me too.. I think this is it.
Quite nifty, I'll certainly spend the whole seconds I save everyday on somehting useful, like picking my nose.
Now for some fun; look at the results you get for the first character typed: ..ha ha.. :-)
A - amazon
G - gmail
L - lowes
B- best-buy
K - k-mart
I - ikea
M - mapquest
MICR - What you have to type before you see microsoft.
Re: (Score:2)
Yesterday too (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
was not canvas: absolute-positionned divs with round corners.
Re:Yesterday too (Score:5, Informative)
was not canvas: absolute-positionned divs with round corners.
Correct. CSS3 feature, animated with ordinary Javascript.
Re: (Score:2)
I saw it on Google.com last night, but it's gone today. Or maybe it's gone because I was using Firefox last night and IE6 today? At any rate, Google was normal this morning.
"Google Search" (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
http://www.pcworld.com/article/204246/googles_realtime_search_update_does_what_twitter_wont.html [pcworld.com]
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
who cares (Score:5, Insightful)
As an Opera user I haven't been on google front page for years - I just use g in url bar to search for whatever I'm searching for
Re: (Score:2)
As a Firefox user I haven't been on google front page for years - I just use the bar to search for whatever I'm searching for
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
...as a Chrome user, I just type words into the multi-function bar
...Firefox user, I do the same thing
...IE user, I also do the same thing, except my search terms are sent to people all over the world that I don't know, along with everything else I type.
Re:who cares (Score:4, Funny)
Checking Browser Capability for Graceful Fallback (Score:4, Informative)
Is there a good reason why these new Google toys don't work in Opera by default? Neither the background image option or that swirling ball trick from the other day worked in Opera until you set it in the options for Opera to mask itself as IE or Firefox - and now the same thing is true for this latest gimmick.
I don't know for sure (not a Google insider) but I would guess that they are using a wrapper script or something that has a hard coded list of support browser by browser. Whatever version of Opera you are using is probably incorrectly identified as not having these HTML5 feature(s) supported. Or perhaps it only gives you some of the functionality so they make the executive decision to just disable it entirely. I just finished reading HTML5 Up and Running by Mark Pilgrim of Google and he pushes heavily for the use of modernizr [modernizr.com] to check browser capabilities [diveintohtml5.org]. I've never known Modernizr to be wrong though. Whatever the case, it appears Google is simply not promising their doodle will work in Opera ... could be that they made a checking script for the Pac-Man doodle [slashdot.org] and just kept carrying it over. Did Opera work for that?
Now that I think about it, this is a high traffic page so they probably wrote their own browser checking wrapper for graceful fallback instead of pushing all of a javascript library down to each client. They are probably using a broad brush to balance bandwidth with audience and you're one of the unfortunate victims.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Streaming Search Vid (Score:5, Informative)
I was able to see the streaming search yesterday for some reason... Luckily, I recorded it. If you want to see it, it's at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOizC3ZPsFI
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Depends what server on the cluster you connect to.
As an example, my house on maps.google.com was recently updated. Then I went somewhere else. When I came back to my house the old image was back for the close-up view, but at the wide view the new image was still being served.
I would posit that the same thing happens depending on what server/shipping container you connect to when doing a search.
Re: (Score:2)
From the TechCrunch article [techcrunch.com] that reported about streaming search awhile back:
“At any given time we are running between 50-200 search experiments. You can learn more on our blog [blogspot.com].”
The google blog states that they randomly select which computers get used for testing new features like streaming search.
That's just great! (Score:2, Interesting)
Yet another bit of distracting, eye-candy crap that uses JavaScript to tart up my monitor like a whore on Saturday night. I get that Google is becoming EVIL despite their stated intentions to the contrary, but do they have to be ugly and bloated too?
A quote from the TV series 'Life': "Its like Hello Kitty ate the Disney Channel and threw it up on that half of the room."
This trend of 'cute for cuteness sake' seems to be taking over the whole computing industry. I really wish developers, and
Google specificall
Re: (Score:2)
So learn to use shortcut searches. IE, Chrome and Firefox all support them (I don't use Opera, but I'll bet they do, too). Why even look at the Google homepage? It's faster and you can ignore all the "ugly and bloated" stuff.
Oh, wait. That would be too easy. You'd rather just bitch about it.
Re: (Score:2)
Yet another bit of distracting, eye-candy crap that uses JavaScript to tart up my monitor like a whore on Saturday night.
What do you have against whores? Some of my friends are whores!
I really wish developers, and
Google specifically, would spend more effort on functionality and usability and less effort on putting on their damned makeup.
I can't see how Google could be more functional, useable, or minimalistic. Have you ever been to Bing? Eye candy central; useless photos cluttering the screen, and not very
Re: (Score:2)
Phrenology? (Score:3, Funny)
Is reading Google's intentions from the Google logo the new Phrenology or would it be more akin to practices of divination such as reading the future from tea-leaves or the entrails of recently slaughtered goats?
Re:Phrenology? (Score:4, Funny)
I understand your skepticism. However, you must believe in the interconnectedness of things to understand why this works.
Reality is one vast machine. All actions are interconnected like gears in an elaborate clock. Looking at ants moving grains of sand can help divine the motions of the stock market. A woman dresses up one day determines (or is a consequence of) her horse winning a race at Belmont. The random drip of water flowing through a cave imprints "Rita Hayworth is a goddess" on the cave wall.
And a Google marketing rep, privy to the details of the announcement, wears a mongoose boa one day. The front-page coders, not privy to this information, think it looks clownlike. A man in a Chewbacca costume robs a liquor store. A blind ferret bites the toe of an American tourist in Sydney. Unable to finish the appropriate Javascript version of Fallout 4, the coders throw in some code from their existing type-ahead library.
This is how we know.
White after labor day (Score:2)
Google home page? (Score:2)
People actually go to the google home page? What's wrong with browser bar searching?
Re:Google home page? (Score:5, Funny)
my parents use the search bar to search for google.com (with the .com, mind you), and then use the google home page to search. I wish I was kidding :(
Re: (Score:2)
Possibly the fact that browser bar searching won't give you results as you type? Not just suggestions, actual results, which this appears to be.
Cigar (Score:2)
"Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar"
RT? (Score:2)
(I'm sorry)
Re: (Score:2)
Raspberry Tart?
Really Terrible?
Rehashed Technology?
No doodle for IPv6 (Score:2)
They don't appear to change the doodle often when connecting via IPv6.
Meh.
They are nothing but another form of therapy... (Score:2)
Ugh, real-time search (Score:2)
I suppose a lot of people like it, but I hate real-time search. It's like trying to carry on a conversation with someone who won't let you finish your sentences.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
It appears that you can toggle instant off and just use regular search.
Re: (Score:2)
Google Instant is here (Score:3, Informative)
Huh? (Score:2)
Google has a homepage?!
I literally use Google every day, many, many times a day, but I haven't viewed www.google.com in... years? Even using Google Chrome I only view search results and stuff like Google Calendar or Gmail. Even still it seems that going to the homepage is pointless. Ironically, this means Google has grown beyond ubiquitous.
Of course I miss out on all the cute, experimental stuff they do...
I don't care, I gave up on them (Score:2)
Real Time search = creepy (Score:2)
Re:Interesting (Score:5, Informative)
there, not here (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It hasn't done that for me at the English, German, .com or .ca site. I am running the latest firefox beta. It does hide every thing except for the main box and logo until I move the mouse though and then the other parts fade in.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
if you want to see something really cool, check out the Image Swirl [googlelabs.com] search. Its no so much a bit of eye candy as is an associative grouping of search results - for images. Unfortunately, it uses Flash, but give it a go - click a group result and you'll see. Hopefully they'll implement this as js if it comes out of the labs.
Re: (Score:2)
In fairness, Microsoft dropped ACID too.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
It's hard to ignore that? It's not like it significantly increases load times or changes, well, anything.
If you just want results, why didn't you just type your query into the search box that's on every modern browser? You get to ignore the entire homepage!
It's like you're just bitching because you can. Seriously... get over yourself.
Wut wut? (Score:3, Insightful)
There shall be a Reckoning for this lag!
Re: (Score:2)
Hold on, one of these is an infinite fuel source? Which is it: canvas, or heretics?
Re: (Score:2)
Heretics, obviously.
Re: (Score:2)
I dunno if you remember this, but google was originally loved by geeks not because of its awesome search results, but because the search page was clean and quick. Doing anything that kills that lowers Google's value as a search engine.
And for the record, Google is not free. Google allows you to use their search engine as compensation for helping them to improve their advertising model.
Re: (Score:2)
but she wasn't impressed with the balls
you don't say...
Re: (Score:2)
I saw that last night and thought "wow, Google's really got BALLS!"
Re:Google has lost it... (Score:5, Informative)
And a colour changing logo affects your work day in what way? You realise no one at Google forced you to spend the afternoon playing pacman.
You can still type in a query, click search and get your results.
To be honest, I usually miss out on the doodles because it's so much quicker in Firefox to hit Ctrl K then type your query.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Google has lost it... (Score:5, Funny)
You know, I think you'll recover from the trauma eventually.
What's in store... (Score:2)
Those flying dots were freaking hypnotic. I spent more time messing with those than I did pacman, personally.
IMO, it could be either a fancy gimmick or a symbolism of sorts. Yesterday, I thought the flying dots might symbolize Google's intent to self-regulate due to the antitrust suit brought against them - instead of having the potential to be broken, they might fracture their individual components into separate companies, enabling them to financially/legally protect/isolate them from such an action. Adsen
Re: (Score:2)
I really think you are over-analyzing this. It's just a stupid little thing to get people to say "hey, that's neat". It promotes word-of-mouth advertising and mindshare; it keeps people thinking about Google more than any other search engine.
Re: (Score:2)
It fucks up anyone working over an RDP, ICA, VNC and similar remote desktop protocols over slow links like, say, satellite connections. That means a lot of people in corporations using Thin-client terminals and the like. For, you know, "serious" work.
"Consumers" on home PCs who are easily amused by shiny moving objects and pieces of wiggling string are very pleased though.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Holy crap. Control K. And here I was using my mouse like a sucker. Thank you!
Re: (Score:2)
Holy crap. Control K. And here I was using my mouse like a sucker. Thank you!
Ctrl-E works as well in both FF & IE.
I despise having to remember browser specific keyboard shortcuts.
Re: (Score:2)
"Alt-D, Tab" is another way. I found that one before I knew Ctrl-K existed and now it's too late to reprogram my fingers. The problem is that IE requires two Tabs, so I might have to relearn anyway.
Re: (Score:2)
I had great fun with the balls that reacted to your mouse cursor. Made a boring day a little more interesting.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
It's used by a lot of people for a lot of reasons. Maybe it's time for "Google Lite".
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
you could just use the search bar in firefox, or type your queries directly into the url bar in chrome.
really, who goes to the google front page anymore, other than to check on some interesting doodle?
Re: (Score:2)
you could just use the search bar in firefox, or type your queries directly into the url bar in chrome.
really, who goes to the google front page anymore, other than to check on some interesting doodle?
Almost everyone I know who isn't a techie, and/or has set their homepage to Google. This is actually way more people than I know who use the search bar in Firefox or IE7+
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Blackle.com suits minimalism nicely
Re:Google has lost it... (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually I think it's you who has lost it. Google Search is a commodity, not something you have an inherent right to. Furthermore, these stunts of Google's are the type of thing MBAs shy away from; only in an organization where developers have a lot of free reign is this ever common.
Re:Google has lost it... (Score:4, Informative)
You do realize that Google Doodles are a tradition at Google dating back to 2000? They archive all of the doodles here: http://www.google.com/logos/ [google.com]
If you are instead talking about Google's upcoming Realtime Search, then I don't think this falls under a "private play pen" item but an attempt to make a new search tool that people might find useful. If Google stops innovating and rests on their laurels, they risk another company overtaking them. Sure, not everything they do might succeed or be useful to the vast majority of people, but they try many different things and many of those things wind up working out.
Re: (Score:2)
That applies equally if they just mess up their innovation. For instance, their new image search javascript popup monstrosity is annoying the crap out of me. I might well abandon their image search for another.
Re: (Score:2)
I realize that Google Doodles are a long-standing tradition; I also realize that once upon a time they only came out to commemorate important events, holidays, etc., and were generally few and far between. Lately it seems that more often than not when I visit the Google home page there is a doodle on there. I don't really mind, but it does distract from the purpose of the site and can even cause some problems (at work we are forced to use IE [finally up to 7.0, at least]) and some of their doodles (and even
Re: (Score:2)
Realtime search is new? I've been getting realtime search results for weeks.
Re: (Score:2)
Or use iGoogle.
I've used iGoogle for years and I've never seen any of these gimmicks everyone is talking about.
Re: (Score:2)
No, you get to see a completely different set of gimmicks.
Re: (Score:2)
The firefox google page is always the same: http://www.google.com/firefox [google.com]
Re: (Score:2)
What do you propose?
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know why you got flamebait for that comment. Your first one was non-constructive, but the second one had valid suggestions. I think you got modded unfairly.
But, I want to point out, typically product reviews at companies such as yours and mine are done internally. I don't work at Google but I imagine they do have such a process; it would be hard to believe they don't. Their webpage is their product; it's not an API. We download the product anew each time we go to the site, and customers aren't norma
Re: (Score:2)
I propose that Google play by the same rules the rest of us have to do when releasing changes.
[...]
If I introduced a change without allowing it to be evaluated first [by] my boss would express his major displeasure.
I am quite sure there are code reviews and evaluations INSIDE Google, and the developers there must answer to their bosses. We (you and I, presumably) are not Google employees. You seem to be asking more of Google than you are asking of your own business; how do I direct the development of your company's software? That's what you are demanding from Google.
But more importantly, most of the features they add can be disabled, and a whole lot of them are available in a beta-like form before they are released
Re: (Score:2)
They've been doing doodles almost as long as they've been in business. If you're that easily distracted, maybe you have a creer as a WalMart greeter?
Re: (Score:2)
I didn't realise people still wasted time by loading up typing in google.com or selecting it from their bookmarks and then waited for the useless homepage to load.
If I was doing serious work I wouldn't fuck about by doing everything the slowest way possible.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Results, or suggestions? I don't see results when I do it.
Re: (Score:2)
The doodle resembles unveiling of something. An announcement is coming...
"All your search are belong to us!"?
Re: (Score:2)
"All your search are belong to us!"?
Somebody set up us the doodle.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Google used to limit you to 10 keywords per search. Since they've taken over youtube though, they're short on bandwidth. So, they're trimming that to maximum search length to six characters, as of friday.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)