Google launches the new homepage with Fade-in Experience [UX Dilemma]
Google has launched it’s new homepage that has an interesting ‘fade-in’ experience that loads additional links when user moves the mouse.
When the site loads, you only see Google logo and the big search box, i.e. the minimalistic page. Once you move your mouse, you will see the additional links on the homepage.
Google New Homepage - Before and After the Mouse Movement
Why is this interesting?
Since most users who are interested in clicking over to a different application generally do move the mouse when they arrive, the “fade in” is an elegant solution that provides options to those who want them, but removes distractions for the user intent on searching.
Adds Marissa Mayer:
At first, this worried us a bit: Google is all about getting you where you are going faster — how could we launch something that potentially slowed users down? Then, we realized: we want users to notice this change… and it does take time to notice something (though in this case, only milliseconds!). Our goal then became to understand whether or not over time the users began to use the homepage even more efficiently than the control group and, sure enough, that was the trend we observed. – blog
Give the new homepage a shot – it surely is interesting.
The UX Dilemma
How many user experience gurus agree/disagree with Google’s approach to user experience? Infact, it’s amazing to see the ‘geeky’ experience Google attempts to bring. Maybe, that’s why Bing has a colorful background since they want to appeal to the common mass.
What’s your take?
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I dont see this effect on google working for me. May be they are making it available slowly to all regions.
I am not sure how hiding stuff for mouse over to happen will increase page load time…
I actually meant ‘decrease’ in page load time above.
I think they succeeded in exactly what they were trying to achieve: less distractions to perform a search.
Rubbish, for A.D.D. and Epilepsy sufferers it is simply distracting.
I am not sure what distraction the earlier Google Homepage had. In any case most users will invariably move his/her mouse on the page to bring up the other links. The tech-savvy people have long stopped going to the Homepage and instead searches right from their browser tab.
Yep — I’d seen this and posted on twitter some 15 days back ( http://twitpic.com/pyv7a ) but was wondering if this has something to do with just my system!
@Ramesh: 1 reason that I can think of is: Just type your search. If you need additional search options (images/videos…) move the mouse and they’d be available
but what is the use of showing the distractions when I move my mouse, a thing I constantly do,
I have to move my mouse to go to the search input field and put focus on it, when doing so, I do get distracted from what I am doing, I want to search, now I am confused.. all kinds of things appear when I move my mouse to do what I wanted to do,
and then my popup ad paranoia kicks in and I close the browser all together..
OT: so I tried Bing, wich came up with a total of three search results, none of them remotely relevant…
you don’t have to move the mouse to go to the search input field. Just begin typing
I simply agree that there were no “distractions” before. How can you have distractions, when there is a huge Google logo in the middle of the screen with a big search field under it? Who was being distracted by the other links? I like it the way it was. Now, it takes more time for me to go to News and Gmail, things I regularly check.
Pretty true. I did not like the fade in effect either. It’s not even remarkable enough to remember…:)
I do not like this at all. This “fade effect” came up for me some weeks back,(I cant recall how many weeks it’s been) and I thought it was malware, spyware or something. A simple cache clear fixed it and eliminated the ” Google Fade Effect”. But as of today, clearing my cache wont fix it, and the fade come back when I open google. I do not like it whatsoever, and it increases load time for me by a second or so. Leave things alone Google please
….Oh I forgot to say I am glad though I found this Plugged.in site. After doing a search to see if it was either spyware, my pc going haywire or something google had done. So thank you all for your posts here, so now I know it is not spyware
Who is responsible for this pathetic rubbish ?
Off to bing
Agh! Finally I’m not the only one that noticed it. I don’t like it at all! I even though it was a bug or something. I just wan to click fast on “Images”, “Video’s” or something else, but that is inpossible now because of the delay
Please set it back if somebody here me? I love Google because it’s fast, quick & easy, don’t *&$%@*% .
I like it. The discussion above seems to be all about efficiency without thinking about user-experience. I find the fade rather calming and intriguing. It makes me pause.
Anyway, people are notorious for spending too little time creating good queries and too much time browsing results sets that have low precision. I don’t want to get from a to b quickly if b isn’t where I really want to go. Slowing down at the query stage might have benefits. I think it would be interesting to see what effect this has on how long it takes people to find what they want (ok, I’m talking about efficiency) as well as how much they enjoy the experience.
Off for another cup of camomile!
Google is trying to improve the interface to a more efficient, simpler and intuitive search experience. To do that they need to strip down all the things which keeps you from typing a searchquery, such as the blue cluttered links on top. For me this is a nice and clean solution.
By the way, it looks like our friend Melroy Antoine van den Berg left the exact same message on my blog?
I had a different opinion Paaul.
When I am in middle of typing query parameter, google shows up with the links. Which then catches my attention and distracts me. While for a normal page I’d anyway ignored the noise while looking at the center of the search page.
It seems more a anti-incumbent kind of approach especially after Bing has managed a decent search service with amazing pictures behind. Ponder about it, sire.
?Well, maybe Google is doing some A/B testing and you’re getting a different version of the homepage, but in my version the links on top don’t show up while typing, only when you hit the return. At that very moment you automatically look at the search results because this is something you’re used to and picked up while using. So for me it is not that distracting at all. It is true that Google should test the fade timing a bit more to find the perfect balance.
I have to say I’m not a Bing user, so my opinion is somewhat clouded to say the least, but I don’t really understand the pictures in the background. I agree that they look really nice and as a designer/photographer I really do enjoy looking at pictures, but that is not what searchengines in general are all about. If you know why Bing is using pictures in the background, please let me know because I’m missing the point.