March 30, 2006 | In Technology | No Comments
Arstechnica has published a simple little trick to view Google search results in a slightly different format.
By simply visiting Google.com and typing javascript:alert(document.cookie=”PREF=ID=fb7740f107311e46:
TM=1142683332:LM=1142683332:S=fNSw6ljXTzvL3dWu;path=/;domain=.google.com”) into the address bar, one can alter the appearance of their search results.
Google hasn’t given any official word about if or when they plan to fully switch to the new format, but there are obvious benefits of doing so.
As explained in the Artstechnica article, the new layout includes a narrow left column with links to the different niche search services offered by Google, including Local, News, and Image search options. This is likely designed to better integrate the many different sections of the site, and inspire casual users to explore all of them.
Overall, the new design seeks to make more efficient use of space on the page, and overall, it does quite a good job.
My bet is that Google will attempt some real world testing of the new layout before bringing it to the general public. The key numbers that they’ll look at are the effect on ad clicks, and the amount of time users spend at the Google site.
If the internet giant can make these numbers go up, even a little bit, they’ve got a winning design. If not, it will quite probably go back to the drawing board.
