Test or New Design?

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Test or New Design?

The Cricketer

4:17 pm on Dec 6, 2003 (gmt 0)

I've been looking for a mention here of Google's new look, but can't find much. I'm sure that yesterday it didn't look like it does now. The new graphic on the SERPs which they use with the gradient looks pretty good and the looks are similar to Hotmail's new tranformation. It must be catching!

And as for getting rid of the coloured background of the sponsored links at the side, well it's more good news for all you advertisers out there!

finer9

7:21 pm on Dec 9, 2003 (gmt 0)

Here is something interesting: I am in the US (Philly) and my upstairs computer displays the new look and the downstairs the old look! I am on a cable modem with DHCP/NAT so I only have one real IP address...maybe it is some sort of random test? Strange!

Chndru

7:45 pm on Dec 9, 2003 (gmt 0)

Get 'em Screenshots :) and post 'em.

*life is wonderful with images*

finer9

1:13 am on Dec 10, 2003 (gmt 0)

It looks the same as cricketers....

What is strange is both computers are win2k and on the same network, which leads me to believe it is some sort of random cookie type thing

Do you still want a screenshot for any reason?

panic

1:24 am on Dec 10, 2003 (gmt 0)

Here is something interesting: I am in the US (Philly) and my upstairs computer displays the new look and the downstairs the old look! I am on a cable modem with DHCP/NAT so I only have one real IP address...maybe it is some sort of random test? Strange!

I had colleagues out of Narberth, PA look at it and they were both showing the regular result page. Also, are both your upstairs and downstairs computers running the same operating systems?

finer9

2:39 am on Dec 10, 2003 (gmt 0)

see last post - both running Win2K - both Dell, hm. Both have Google toobar...can't think of anything else that matters.

Let me know if there are any tests or anything anyone wants to see on the computer showing the 'new' look

oodlum

2:59 am on Dec 10, 2003 (gmt 0)

Google may have randomly placed a cookie on one computer but not the other.

edited for clarity

panic

3:14 am on Dec 10, 2003 (gmt 0)

Google may have randomly placed a cookie on one computer but not the other.

That's the only thing I can think of.

finer9

3:19 am on Dec 10, 2003 (gmt 0)

agreed...not worth going so far as to examine the cookie is it? hehe

finer9

5:19 am on Dec 10, 2003 (gmt 0)

Well, my 'magic' upstairs computer is still doing it here...

As requested SCREENSHOT [software4parents.com] (338KB JPG)

The Cricketer

8:13 pm on Dec 11, 2003 (gmt 0)

Yep it seems that it's definitely a cookie. I have one computer with 2 different W2k user logins, one shows the test design the other shows the old one. I dare not delete my cookies, I like the look too much!

Oh yeah by the way, I can see Froogle results at the top of the SERP

Chndru

8:27 pm on Dec 11, 2003 (gmt 0)

>Yep it seems that it's definitely a cookie

Then, you should be able to copy it and put it online for us to download to "our" cookies?

finer9

10:22 pm on Dec 12, 2003 (gmt 0)

Has the 'shameless self promotion' by Google (their words not mine) for Froogle been discussed? I just noticed it, make sure to scroll all the way down to the bottom:

SCREENSHOT [software4parents.com]

amznVibe

11:30 pm on Dec 12, 2003 (gmt 0)

This is a little bit related as it is an interface topic:

I don't know if this has ever been mentioned before, but google has a little "feature" (aka bug) that you can use to get totally plain output, without adwords or newslinks, etc. Almost takes you back 5 years or so eh?

Just add the the phrase "&output=googleabout"

compare:

[google.com...]

Not extremely useful, but interesting. Of course it may not work much longer now that I posted it, heh.

ps. try changing the word "googleabout" to "xml" for a facinating error

GaryK

11:50 pm on Dec 12, 2003 (gmt 0)

Here's an even more interesting example of how the output parameter can be used to get a very simple listing of just the search results.

[google.com...]

amznVibe

11:57 pm on Dec 12, 2003 (gmt 0)

Ah cute, I forgot about that one (can be started with www.google.com/xhtml )

All these output variations also work with news & directory (but not groups).

I wonder if the msn-like interface is simply a new kind of new output template hidden in post or cookie data?

Whomever is getting it should try to view the post data and cookies to find out!
Copy this into your IE address bar next time you see the special output:

javascript:alert(document.cookie)

Continued here:
[webmasterworld.com...]

[edited by: Brett_Tabke at 7:15 pm (utc) on Feb. 2, 2004]

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