Test out Google's new interface

Interesting interface variation for Google SERPs

[frakilk]

For Google.com users paste this into your address bar while on Google search and hit enter followed by a refresh.
javascript:alert(document.cookie="PREF=ID=fb7740f107311e46:TM=1142683332:*
LM=1142683332:S=fNSw6ljXTzvL3dWu;path=/;domain=.google.com")

For Google.co.uk users paste this into your address bar while on Google search and hit enter followed by a refresh.
javascript:alert(document.cookie="PREF=ID=fb7740f107311e46:TM=1142683332:*
LM=1142683332:S=fNSw6ljXTzvL3dWu;path=/;domain=.google.co.uk")

* line break added here to prevent side scrolling - remove before using code

Not sure I like it.

[edited by: tedster at 10:50 pm (utc) on Mar. 26, 2006]

[bufferzone]

No matter what I do I don't seems to be able to get it to work. I get an alert box that I must press OK on to be able to hit refresh. I have tried in EI and firefox

I have tried [google.com...]
I have tried just javascript:alert(doc...
I have even tried [javascript:alert(doc......]

Nothing works or I'm blind or missing somthing

[ZoltanTheBold]

Looks very amateurish to me. Also hijacking the PR type green bars for an altogether different purpose (amount of information for your search term, presumably) makes no sense. Not that Joe Public even cares about PR.

If I had to hazard a guess it has all the hallmarks of a programmer being let loose on a front end. I mean, I know the GooglePlex is geek-central, but surely they have enough cash for even 1 graphic designer?

[RunnerD]

Interesting..Not exactly the best though, looks sort of confusing, and that left bar is taking my attention away from a lot of the ads on the right.

[G_Smitty]

Nothing works or I'm blind or missing somthing

Leave off the http:// Just paste the actual script.

javascript:alert(document.cookie="PREF=ID=fb7.......

[bufferzone]

I have tried it again. Stil gets an alert box saying

PREF=ID=fb7740f107311e46:TM=1142683332:LM=1142683332:S=fNSw6ljXTzvL3dWu;path=/;domain=.google.com

And I still have to click OK to be able to reload. When I reload [google.dk...] loads and it looks normal for searches also.

Any suggestions?

[vincevincevince]

Under advanced search I see 'Usage RightsReturn results that are' - is that new?

[whoisgregg]

You have to change the last portion of the javascript to match the google.* to which you are connecting.

bufferzone, in your case you'd use:

 domain=.google.dk

[bufferzone]

Sorry Gregg The result is still the same except now the alert box sais

.google.dk in the ende insted of .com

Mayby I'm tired. I get some sleep and try again tomorrow

Thanks anyways

[celgins]

I'm pretty sure the green bar next to each search service has nothing to do with PageRank.

I believe those green "PR-like" bars on the left actually indicate 'relevance'. Meaning, the longer the bar, the more results your search query has within those categories (Images, Groups, News, Froogle, etc.)

These are the same green bars that are seen in the Google Directory, which indicate how relevant a site is to your particular search.

[poster_boy]

Much more emphasis on those ads at the top.

Interesting, I had the opposite reaction. To me, the relevancy bars distract from the top ads...

The lay-out also seems to be emphasizing the other options... Image, Groups, etc. that may cause users to browse more through the Google properties following a query, but distracts them before they might click on an ad.

[Genie]

The green bars in the Google Directory show PageRank.

However it's pretty clear that the green bars in the new interface are something different. I would have guessed that they are supposed to indicate the number of results, but if so, it's not working too well.

[MatthewHSE]

I had been feeling fine tonight. But that layout gave me a nasty headache.

[Mr_Fern]

I got my hopes up for nothing :(

[annej]

But that layout gave me a nasty headache.

Well if you want to add a sick stomach and claustrophobia to the headache try this search.

[live.com...]

[kartiksh]

it worked for me. what i did is below

typed [google.com...]
in browser bar.

which returned 404 for me. then i opened google.com which redirected to my country specific domian i.e. www.google.co.in, i clicked go to google.com
(or directly type www.google.com/ncr)
and now i am able to see the results and new look.

hope this helps.

[SEOteam]

Hi All,

I still could not use the given code. Please let me know what to copy and paste in the borwser...

Thanks

[bufferzone]

I finally got it to work, using the way kartiksh discribed

first I loaded [google.com...]
Then I loaded [google.com...]

Which gave me a 404.

Then I deleated javascript:alert(document.cookie="PREF=ID=fb7740f107311e46:TM=1142683332:LM=1142683332:S=fNSw6ljXTzvL3dWu;path=/;domain=.google.com")
Leaving [google.com...] and reloaded this

Then I search for webmasterworld and it worked

Thanks

I think it looks ok

[decaff]

for sure google is deploying some of their user interface studies here..(eye tracker)...and if this goes live looking to direct more traffic to their niche searches for increased revenue opportunities...(vertical traffic push from the main googel interface to their horizontal properties)

[dudibob]

seems exactly the same layout to me, part from the PR bar. What's with that? is that an average of the pages? Not worth the hype I had :(

[Stronkie]

I've tried all the suggestions so far and I still can't get anything on .co.uk

Can someone please explain it in a simple:

STEP 1
paste the following into your browser: javascript:alert(document.cookie=.......... etc

hit enter

STEP 2
delete the following from the address......

hit refresh

STEP 3

search for something

etc. etc.

[g1smd]

I did that back on Page 1 of the thread.

Last night it took three goes to get it to work for me. If you have an existing cookie, your .com access might be being redirected to .co.uk or some other country specific version.

In that case make the domain in the stuff that you type in match the domain that you are actually using.

[celgins]

The green bars in the Google Directory show PageRank.

Yes they do. But I was focusing more on the green bars beside the categories in the new layout, and the fact that they appear to denote the number of relevant search query items within those categories

Google's partial description of the PageRank bar in its Directory:

Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don't match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines all aspects of the page's content (and the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if it's a good match for your query.

So, I guess Google is saying that even though a site with a longer green bar has a higher PR than a site with a shorter green bar (importance), their PageRank technology actually determines how relevant each site is to your query (relevance).

Either way, the results I get aren't well targeted when I click the 'longer' green bar categories in the new layout.

[jcmoon]

I've noticed that with the new interface one thing that has disappeared is the feature saying how long the query took. In the usual interface, search on Google and near the top right of the SERP it mentions 0.6 seconds or 0.08 seconds or whatever.

This doesn't appear in the new interface.

If this new interface is the future, may we assume then that G no longer wishes to compete with the other SE's in this way?

[Genie]

I guess Google is saying that ... their PageRank technology actually determines how relevant each site is to your query

No - Google is saying that PageRank is just one factor in their algorithm. It is the other factors that determine relevance. PageRank is simply a measure of how important a page appears to be within the Internet as a whole.

If Google returned pages based only on PageRank, then you would get the same results whatever you searched for. The first page of Google's results would simply show the same bunch of PR 10 websites. Every time.

Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don't match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search.

[decaff]

STEP 1
paste the following into your browser: javascript:alert(document.cookie=.......... etc

hit enter

STEP 2
delete the following from the address......

hit refresh

STEP 3

search for something

try this:

STEP 1

Search For Something (anything....take this opportunity to get away from your daily predictable searches from within the confines of your own keyword phrases and try something new and really different)..

STEP 2
copy and paste the full string shown several times in this thread...I recommend grabbing the string and dropping it into a plain text file with no word wrapping...

STEP 3
copy and paste the saved string into your address bar AFTER you have initiate a search

STEP 4
Ignore whatever kind of message the browser may throw at you...then hit REFRESH...

What just Happened...
A cookie was set on your maching call PREF and you should now be seeing the new test interface (There must be a series of these being tested)...

hope this helps...

[shortbus1662]

took me forever to figure out that the red * needed to be out for this to work.

Anyway, I'm not sure what the green bar is for. For instance, I searched for a term and the local green bar was full and the others weren't nearly as full, so I clicked it, and there weren't even any listings for that term in the local search.

[ecomguy]

frakilk,

Thanks for sharing this. Nice to have the preview. From a user point of view I like having the bars at the left tell me which Google search site is likely to have the most relevant results. Often when I'm looking for technical info it's a toss up between looking first in the Group search or the Web search. This gives a clue where it might be more productive to search first.

celgins,

I got one really clear cut example of how the category relevancy can work. I tried searching for "Jill Carroll", and the News category was a 10 while other categories were much lower. Makes sense since hers is a top news story right now. I'm not sure it represents page rank relevancy so much as it tells the user about the category relevancy for their search term.

[homegirl]

What do people think about this look? I currently find it a little distracting and actually not relevant or helpful yet (for the various searches I've done). For example, it claimed higher relevancy for one search on News, but nothing matched there wherease the Web results were better (but had lower relevancy if I'm reading the PR bar correctly). Is anyone else seeing this? This wasn't up as of last night.

I do like their drawing attention to the Advanced Search and Preferences settings.