Google is continually updating its search experience via the algorithms and the way results are displayed. But when it comes to the search box itself, it has largely left it alone. Sure, it has added drop downs for suggested results, but the box itself has stayed a thin input field. But now it looks like Google may be thinking about a change.
Today, while using the Safari browser, we noticed that the search box has been made bigger, and the buttons made square. We’re not the only ones who have noticed the change. It may seem like a trivial update, but remember, this is Google, millions of people use it every day to do searches, and a UI change, however small, is not trivial.
Notice how big the input box now is compared to the Google logo (below).
Also remember that Google goes over data for every little change it does to determine if the change is worth it. It would seem that this is what it’s doing now, as plenty of others are not seeing the change yet.
Anyone else noticing this change in any browser besides Safari?
Update: Additional reports say they are seeing it in some versions of Firefox too.
Update 2: No less than Google’s Vice President of Search Product and User Experience, Marissa Mayer, has just posted on the matter.
Says Mayer:
Search, that is. For us, search has always been our focus. And, starting today, you’ll notice on our homepage and on our search results pages, our search box is growing in size. Although this is a very simple idea and an even simpler change, we’re excited about it — because it symbolizes our focus on search and because it makes our clean, minimalist homepage even easier and more fun to use.
Are you freakin’ kidding me?
STOP THE PRESSES GOOGLE UPDATES CSS PX WIDTH
I think this is very worthy news.
Uh huh.
OK.
In other news, an anonboard.com user has finally gotten laid.
People who daily use Google can get surprised about this change without their knowledge, and this post can be helpful to them.
This is very worthy news. A small change like this can equal billions of additional revenues over a period of time– although their metrics for their multi-variate test are probably along the lines of unique searchers to number of searches (As a search focused company)
I’m figuring they do a small percentage test first, and then roll it out once they figure out how much of a gain it can get them once they get results from other demos like other countries.
I think a small change like this can affect billions of users, but do you really think it would impact revenue in any way.
(User: A bigger search box, I really have to click on the ads now!)
Apart from a few people doing a few extra useless searches to check out the “bigger” box, afaik it won’t matter much in terms of revenue.
Tiny changes can definitely impact revenue.
As a case in point, Steve Souders has shown that milliseconds changes in load time can have a huge impact on conversion rates (read: profits) of sites look Amazon.
In a similar way, a change to the core Google search box size can affect: i) likelihood that someone types the correct search term, ii) visual focus on the search results page, iii) perceived ease of use and user preference for Google over an alternative engine.
If Google is rolling this out, you can bet your house that they tested it first. Doug Bowman complained that Google ran hundreds of tests just to choose a shade of blue, so you better believe this change is going to bring Google even more money.
All that being said, Google made the wrong move. Life isn’t all about algorithms. This change is plain ugly.
Here’s how i think THEY think it would work:
1. more and more people are constantly IMPROVING their rearch techniques on Google.
2. this means more people are now making more (knowledgable) efforts to get more accurate search results.
3. a bigger (longer) search box = more words = more precise search.
4. better search results = BETTER TARGETED ADS = more clicks
See where this is going?
And the nice thing about it is while the change may improve things for the “power users”, it hardly affects newcomers or “regular users”.
Only one thing bothers me about this change. their ugly homepage now got even uglier.
Yes, the box is longer, but the font is larger, so you can’t necessarily use “more words”, and in my experience using “more words” when search brought back irrelevant results.
Using 3 or 4 keywords when searching will always bring a better set than using 17 keywords.
I don’t think there was or is a restriction on how many characters can go into the search bar.
But I agree, It’s Ugly, I thought I had a Virus and was checking my settings in my browser, and checking other computers and browsers, seriously I thought I had done something wrong to make the Search page look like that.
That was the most Amazing News for Me on TC for years
slow day with twitter?
well it was down for a little bit during the stevenote.
I’m seeing the difference in Firefox 3.5.2
i can’t see it -on my firefox 3.5.2 it looks like the old version screenshot, and I tried ctrl+f5
i can’t see it on my safari either, but another TCer can. looks like this is definitely a very limited test.
Its called A/B testing derivate of multivariate testing
By the way, AAfter search has a bigger search box about a year now, and done with the A/B testing :-)
How is this news? Does it do anything new? Does this really minor cosmetic change deserve an article at all? :(
I have the new one. It feels odd (unnecessarily so). And I *think* the box is positioned higher on the page.
While I may get used to it, of course it’s news. Because I may not get used to it. It may annoy me. If I’m annoyed too much, I may start using Bing. It’s amazing how tiny UI changes can alter user perception.
First impression: do not like.
Agreed – do not like.
I found this story doing a search for “why is google search bigger” – that’s how much this change bothered me.
Even the new larger one seems small. They should make it taller, if anything.
hey, that’s my screen shot ;-)
I like the classic look better. the new one makes it look a lot like every other designer-heavy web app that’s come out in the past year. don’t cave to peer pressure!
No difference in Firefox 3.5.3
It’s up on Google.co.uk, but not on Google.com for me. Maybe only UK test?
I certainly like it.
no it’s on google everywhere. google.com is the same BS.
this whole 100% larger with GINORMOUS font is such crap.
shocking!!!
No diferrence in Firefox 3.5.3
I can see it on Google.com but not on my local Google.se.
I’m using FF 3.5.2
I see the new layout on Chrome 4
nope, some things are just trivial
I will say, this article got me to click on it.
A rarity these days with TechCrunch.
“Looks like a terrible car accident”
I’m getting it on google.co.uk in firefox, but not safari
I see the change in 3.5.2
You think it’s related to users who also visit the site in a mobile device? Hmmm, maybe not, it’s not changed in safari or opera, just FF.
Mabye it’s because it’s 09/09/09, and Google’s infrastructure is starting to melt down. The end is near!! :)
This was announced on the google blog moments ago.
yup, we beat em :)
Official… http://googlebl...-e-r-sized.html
I can see it on Google.cn, but not on Google.com (even in English) or Google.fr (local).
This is easy to explain. There’s GoogleOS coming out soon. Like any OS it will have own Look&Feel, so that users can easy identify it. These are the first steps. In the feature we should see all google apps getting cosmetically changes.
For Google updating css px width is a big deal. It means they don’t have to go out a buy another product and rename it. This must have taken at least half of their pedigree college kids 6 months to agree on and another 6 months to actually do it.
Wow, Google’s spam filter must have failed and they responded to one od those “add 3 inches” ads :-)
+100
++Awesome;
Seriously, though, this update is important, as it improves the accessibility of the service. While I don’t need it (yet), I hope they continue to address accessibility issues.
Funniest ‘em of all on TC…
I see this as a very logical move…as more and more are going into long tail and the bigger search box will allow them to see the complete text that they have typed…
So no surprises here..
and the New York Times changed italics today but nobody noticed.
I agree with Sourav, Google is just appealing to the dumber crowd (It’s main demographic) also since people are getting introduced to search earlier in their lives.
Google needs a more intuitive interface for the primary school kids. What better way than making the search box and the buttons bigger?
And yes, the Long tail is getting used more, people are refining their searches. Almost 25% of all searches are completely new and unique.
Well at least they did not switch to using Verdana typeface , can you imagine the outrage on twitter from the Ikea font nerds ???.
It looks about the same to me in Mac Firefox 3.5.2. Maybe a teensy bit larger, but nothing I’d write home about.
Thanks for the post. I just love Google!
Funny…it doesn’t look any different right now in … Chrome!
Seriously!!!… I cant believe such a small change is getting so much press.. what’s next publish news about mayer sneezing
It just showed up for me on Firefox 3.5.2. The buttons aren’t squared though still round, or is that just a Safari thing?
wow… that is the lamest marketing move in the history of tech companies. You gotta be kidding me. A big search box means the homepage is more fun to use… :O
Last time I checked with the cool kids a big search box doesn’t equal fun. Maybe I’m enough of a geek to understand the awesomeness.
Of course we’re talking about a company that split test 44 shades of blue to see which blue people liked better. So they probably spent hours and hours and meetings upon meetings deciding how wide or how tall it should be.
It’s not that the search box is just bigger : the text inside is also bigger.
Now, the search box has the same height as the omnibox in Google Chrome.
why no update on google chrome?
Google China enlarged its search box exactly one month ago. see the screenshots here: http://www.dani...search-box.html
To fit Chinese characters, the search box has to be bigger than other Google sites in other countries!
Yawn… “even easier and more fun to use”? Whoopee! Sounds like a trip to Disneyland! Me search! Me search! Ohboyohboyohboy! Yippeeeeee!
Gimme break!
Old people will still continue to search for CNN in the Google search window.
At least kids can tell their elders to type CNN into the smaller white part on top of the browser now.
lmfao!
I like the change.. The larger search and square buttons make it look cleaner to me. Hey, there is ALWAYS room for improvement!
you cannot be serious. the same expression i had for the PR message send to mg, is the same way i’m looking at your comment. i’m sending you some cut eye through the computer screen. it looks fat and ugly.
I use IE and I just noticed the change. Twenty minutes ago it was normal, I got back on again to do a search and freaked out. For a second I was wondering if someone had been on my computer and changed something in my IE options. TBH, I liked the smaller box and buttons. Kind of looks like they went on steroids.
And, really, bigger box and buttons = more fun? Please…
This is yet another attempt by Google to match Bing! :D
just what i was thinking.
Google also changed the color of their font. This, in my opinion, is bigger news than the search box.
No change on my Chrome.
I see it on google.com, google.ge, but not google.cn or google.co.jp.
Its big change! I am also looking in Firefox 3.5.2
It’s google “Grandpa Update”
Looks like the new Facebook search buttons.
Ahh.. The big fonts.. I for one, am not used to it.. It’ll take time for me to get used to it.. Initially, when I saw the new UI, I was like pressing the CTRL + Arrow Down buttons , assumming, I messed up with the size settings.. to find out later,.. innate Google!
I did the same thing, kept making my fonts bigger/smaller until I figured it must be google :)
yeah i’ve been doing that for two days or more now. it’s complete BS. i might have to switch to bing or something because i cannot stand looking at a size set for old people.
i see it on chrome. whoo!
I can see it on firefox and that only for google.co.in (India) and google.fr (French).
All other have the smaller search box.
Here’s something that I found interesting…. on Firefox, when I zoom out, the buttons revert back to having rounded corners. But at normal screen size, and larger…they are square cut. I wonder why that is? I don’t like this new design at all. Very distracting.