November 2, 2009 by Matt Thomas
Some of you may have noticed a new thing that the Google homepage has started doing when it loads up. Last week, some users began to see only the search bar when they loaded the page, no logo and no surrounding links, these would then fade in slowly after a couple of seconds.
It does look pretty cool, though I’m not sure quite what the point is. The Google message board has a few theories though, ranging from it being a way to separate the primary and secondary functions on the page, to keeping in line with Google’s message of being clear and simple.
Google are somewhat predictably tight lipped about what the fade in effect is actually in aid of, releasing only this mysterious statement…
“Many of you may be familiar with Google experiments, you may even have been included in one in the past. We’re constantly testing tweaks – both large and small – to various aspects of Web Search, from its look and feel to new features to “under-the-hood” adjustments we think may improve your Search experience. Well, beginning today we’re running experiments with our homepage itself, and some of you may now be seeing (or will soon see) some changes to the design and behaviour of Google.com.”
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