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Froogle tab is now on google homepage.
[edited by: Brett_Tabke at 3:36 pm (utc) on Mar. 29, 2004]
This will make researching a topic much harder to do. It used to be a lot easier to find related sites.. Google has effectively killed this feature off.
Or just a change in design to get our attention and talked about...
[webmasterworld.com...]
Good looking design though...
It is clean, simple and professional.
I guess there's always a danger in changing something familiar. Personally, I believe the old interface was great so why take the risk of mucking about with it?
I'm heading to bed soon, but I'll check in tomorrow morning in case there's any other questions..
[edited by: BaseVinyl at 8:21 am (utc) on Mar. 29, 2004]
If many are like me, I usually perform a search click on one or two results and then click the category link. This allows you to see some of the best human monitored web sites relating to my search.
As it now stands you have to go to the Google directory and perform the same search again?
If they want to remove the category link from search results and descriptions fine its probably a good idea but their should be a simple link say:
"Search Keyword1 keyword2 in the directory - Click here"
That would be so simple.
Just to note, their was a mistake on one of my web sites in the old google look. The category link which used to be displayed was the wrong category.
Overall I like it.
Perhaps Yahoo will now drop their directory also?
[edited by: lasko at 8:24 am (utc) on Mar. 29, 2004]
Old rumors of imminent demise of DMOZ and subsequently Google Directory finally proving to have something behind them?
Looks like Google is trying to hide the fact that they give so much of a HUGE boost to sites with DMOZ listings. Maybe after the small uproar here on webmasterworld they thought it would be best to just hide the DMOZ directory info altogether. I am just glad I got to see the results with the DMOZ cats listed below them and I got to study it a while or I would have no clue what they had done. I think the Google workers are just doing what they are told to do at this point but every change I see to Google now looks like they are getting more and more greedy and more and more sneaky (making adwords look like search results). I expect the suits are firmly in charge of (and causing) the whole mess and the workers do what they are told so they are not 'downsized'.
Without the green background the Adwords ads seem very insignificant
Of course with a white background it clears the way for the inclusion of premium jpgs...
I know they've always been pioneers of simplicity but this is just way too bland. The adwords are almost invisible and the layout is very uneasy.
I can't help but feel that this is one tweak too far and google may have shot itself in the foot
They shot theirselves in the foot with Florida. Regardless, that is exactly what it will take to make them change their path. More foot shooting. I think it is good in a sick sorta way. The more they change things, the more the 'average user' will wonder what site they are really on. The 'average user' will notice the look is different and the results are different. Maybe that will help shock the 'average user' to go look elsewhere.
One thing I don't like very much about the new interface is the fact that AdWords ads only have a clickable title. While in the old interface the whole ad box area used to be clickable (well, at least with IE), now users have to actually point their mouse to the underlined text link. I'd be curious to know whether that negatively affects AdWords CTRs. Did you test it?
Giacomo
i think it's a big big mistake to drop directory listings in serps, from a searcher's perspective. :-(
I would assume that Google spent countless hours testing the GUI and seeing user responses, clickthrough rates... especially for Adwords considering that is one of their main sources of income. I doubt they would implement a design which would have lower overall adwords CTR.
Why not now move the adwords onto the main body of the page, and put the actual search results down the RHS :)
* almost certainly
I like the new look, and I can't see Adwords CTR going down...
Remains to be seen.
However, the north listings are more valuable now because of their proximity to the regular results.
If you search for "Widgetville" then any occurrences of "Widgetville" aren't highlighted in the URL whereas occurrences of "widgetville" are. This is also the case if you search for the non-capitalised version.
another thing - I've seen up to 10 adwords (2 premium 8 normal) on a page, is this an increase?
