No more title underline on the SERPs - a new layout test

[johnmoose]

Is it me or am I missing the underline in the search result pages? FF still shows them but Chrome doesn't anymore.

[tedster]

I just fired up my Chrome browser, and I am seeing underlines on titles. Maybe you were part of a test.

[kidder]

I'm seeing the same thing in AU using Firefox looking at US results. Chrome appears to be normal.

[miozio]

I saw that two days ago, it looked so uncomfortable... I don't remember where.. I thought it was one of "Google broken" glitches and moved on!

[briggidere]

yeah, i saw that last night but the underlines are back again today.

[johnmoose]

Still not seeing them though. Must say that they do not show in v10 and v11 of Chrome under Ubuntu. My netbook (XP + Chrome) was showing the underline as usual yesterday.

[Brett_Tabke]

send me your screen shot, and i will post it.

[CMidd]

yeah I'm seeing them also. I'm also seen keyboard navigation enabled for ad.

if you search press enter, then enter again you go straight to the top advertiser instead of the first organic result.

My ad background color is lighter also "it's almost white".. and the ad have a preview hour glass The ad look almost like organic results.

maybe Google is testing for an upcoming change.

[aakk9999]

Here is the screenshot:[i55.tinypic.com ]

<added>
If you hover over the title with the mouse, the title gets underlined.
</added>

[johnmoose]

Yep.. and today its still there.. or not, depends on your pov

[crobb305]

I am seeing the no underline phenomenon on google.de

[zehrila]

I am seeing this.
[picturespk.pk...]
its ugly

[Brett_Tabke]

> underline

You guys try that in a couple different browsers?

what is that zehrila? What is the little graph?

That looks like a throw back to when Google used to put the page rank indicator on the serps in that location.

[zehrila]

I saw that in Firefox, google.com. Searched two queries and saw this. Page in general did not look very pretty or aesthetically pleasing, but first 2 listings looked less cluttered.

That little graph is Alexa Addon, which i use to quickly figure out what type of sites giving me tough competition.

[robzilla]

The layout of search results on Google.nl goes several steps step further (but misses the +1s): [postimage.org ]

[tigger]

On Chrome I'm getting double spacing between sites and the display almost looks faded out - looks pretty naff

[aakk9999]

On Chrome I'm getting double spacing between sites and the display almost looks faded out - looks pretty naff

We are seeing this too - the spacing between all listings (including top three adwords) is now larger than in the initial screenshot (above). This means that now SERPs show only first 2.5 organic listings above the fold when you have three adwords displayed on the top of the page.

[Andem]

I'm seeing this all now in Firefox with the toolbar installed.

[picturespk.pk...]

You're right, aakk, it looks very faded out and my first thought was 'uhhh, spyware?' Then I remembered this thread.

[tedster]

Here's a story from TechCrunch about the test:

...it's great that Google appears to be trying to clean up the look of the results page, which has gotten pretty cluttered over the years as they add more and more types of information and snippets. But the new design is too sparse. And the colors are too soft. It looks like Bing on a bad day.

The weirdest thing about the test is that it actually gives you much less information on the screen. This will require users to do more scrolling and paging through results to find what they're looking for.

Google Appears To Be Testing A Sparse, Ugly New Results Page [techcrunch.com]

From the screenshots in this thread, it looks like multivariate testing with more than two approaches in play.

[tigger]

I think the guy summed it up well with "Ugly New Results Page" so far I'm not seeing this on IE if it moves over then I will never use G again as it is I already use Bing more

[nomis5]

Next thing will be the paid links at the top will be underlined and in flashing neon lights whilst the rest of the SERPS will be

....



almost invisible!

[crobb305]

And the colors are too soft. It looks like Bing on a bad day.

A year or two ago, I read that the faded blue links tended to get the best CTR (at least when used on a white background). I started using that same link color on my site over a year ago. I can't remember where I got that information, but I definitely remember reading it. I imagine Google is testing that color for good reason, based on CTR. As for the rest of the text (the gray font), it is hard to read. I need my reading glasses to see it.

[np2003]

Looks like Googled copied the Bing colors and design. They copied the background feature and now this. Google need to innovate rather than copy.

[vordmeister]

< moved from another location >

Spotted a new style being tested for search results this morning. Targeting for the new style was cookie based, and I didn't like it so I cleared my cookies and it went back to normal.

For me it was one of those web 2.0 styles with a mucky light blue for links with not enough contrast to see the link without squinting right up to the monitor, and a load too much white space between results.

Mine was so horrid that I'm guessing they must be doing a scatter test and I got the bad one. Anyone else see anything?

My conclusion - a little more whitespace would be good, but not that much and I don't like colours I can't see.

[edited by: tedster at 7:36 pm (utc) on May 7, 2011]

[Bewenched]

I hope they dont keep it like that.
It's bad enough when they put the link to block a website from the serps right under the main link. wonder how many sites have had that accidentally clicked.... ugh!

[Simsi]

I saw it this morning (using IE) from the UK (but on Google.com). Have to say my initial impression was that I thought it looked cleaner and easier to read and I liked the fact that sponsored results were so much more obvious.

I used it for half an hour or so then this afternoon it (and I) reverted and whether it's just a familiarity thing or not, I decided I still prefer what we see now as far as organic listings go although the "new style" sponsored listings I saw earlier I thought were better.

Oh...incidentally, and not sure why, on searches with no sponsored listings I found I wasn't looking at the #1 SERP first for some reason. Always seemed to clock #3 or #2 and then look up. Must be to do with the extra spacing I guess.

[Play_Bach]

I'm seeing it in Safari. Do a search for your site:example.com

[tangor]

I've always wondered why there are those who want to fix something that ain't broke. They exist, sigh.

[londrum]

A year or two ago, I read that the faded blue links tended to get the best CTR (at least when used on a white background)

i cant see them adopting light blue just to get a higher CTR on the SERPs. why would they? if anything, they want a lower CTR on the serps.
the last thing google wants is for people to leave their site in one click. everything they've done in the last few years is designed to keep people within their own properties.

[np2003]

anyone know how to convert back to the old design? I really hate this design layout. :(