Has Google lost its USP

I went to yahoo and it was like a breath of fresh air

[tantalus]

I just wondered what other peoples thoughts were on this.

When I first went to google as a user I was most impressed with its clear, uncluttered simple design.

The subliminal meassage it seemed to be sending me was "pure search, no bull". "Find what you want, when you want, quickly and efficiently".

I look at Google now and it reminds me of Brett's recent post [webmasterworld.com], confusing, ugly, mixed messages and never too sure on what I should be clicking on.

The lack of advertising currently on yahoo, subconsciously makes me trust its results more. Maybe that's just me or just some old socialist principles kicking around from my youth.

But I wondered what other peoples opinions on this were, purely as a user and essentially from a marketing perspective.

The subconscious is a powerful advertising medium, its why I started using Google in the first place.

Why did you?