Google Testing New SERP?
| Manoj Jasra - Friday, December 15, 2006 2 Comments |
While surfing the web today I noticed that Google had slightly modified its results page (something similar to what they have tested in the past). I checked with some other people at the office and noticed they were still getting the regular results page. At first I thought it was a data center related thing but that wasn't the case. I figured my computer was simply given a special cookie which allowed me to see the different results page. The data center I was using was: 72.14.253.99
Below are some screen shots (click to see full view). Big differences include the different searches down the left side. No page number or amount of results along the top (rather only along the bottom and left justified). This made for an even cleaner layout.
These tests are really stupid.
First, modifying the page, randomly, is a huge accessibility and usability problem. People are lost, and you don't want people to be lost. Ever. This is as annoying as it is rude to your visitors.
Second, this design is really so badly done, I can't even believe they would like to test it... The number of results is hidden at the bottom of the page (so annoying, when you want to quickly check the importance of a result, for spell checking), the keywords are moved to the left, so the keyword list is broken into pieces...
I can only think this is a partial, temporary design, and elements will be added *and moved* afterward... (probably with much Ajax), but why would they want to test it now?
When I see this design, I simply reload the page, to get the normal one...
I agree in that it's not going to be their permanent solution. I also don't like the fact that the number of results is at the bottom.
However I do think the entire interface is quite clean. Google shouldn't fix what isn't broken.