6 ms·
The art of the homepage
- ncarlson 16y agoDid anyone else get a default picture of the gulf oil spill?
- chrisbolt 16y agoI see no way to have no image background. The "White" editor's choice image doesn't make it look like it used to. Very annoying.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- cyunker 16y agoAgreed. Even the White image was buried at the end of the list. I don't see this lasting too long.
- ericd 16y agoYeah, the white lettering makes it very hard to read. Why is Google trying so hard to be more like Bing? The backgrounds are just visual noise getting in the way of what I want my search engine to get done for me.
- xtacy 16y agoHow many of you actually go to the Google homepage to search? With Chrome/Chromium, just type on the address bar; for Firefox have shortcut prefixes. (like "g hacker news" searches for "hacker news".)
- sahaj 16y agoi think this is exactly why the change to google.com was made. it only appeals to the people who have set their homepage to google.com.
- ericd 16y agoAh interesting theory - it's a sort of product segmentation at work. I could buy that.
- mightybyte 16y agoI use it almost exclusively. I've never liked using the address bar or search bar. It just feels wrong for some reason.
- megamark16 16y agoFor me it's habit. I click on the address bar, I type "go" and chrome fills in the rest, than I hit enter and do my stuff. It's muscle memory. I set Duck Duck Go as my primary browser search engine a long time ago but still habitually type "go" and use google. This change should be all I need to remember to type "du" instead of "go".
- petercooper 16y agoThe link at the bottom left saying "Remove background image" puts it back to normal. Proof: http://skitch.com/petercooper/d8t8h/remove http://skitch.com/petercooper/d8t8h/remove (Update: Seems this doesn't work for everyone!)
- carbocation 16y agoInteresting; it's probably an A/B test, since I'm not given that option. At the bottom left corner, my screen says, "Change background image." EDIT: Actually, I selected a background, and then I was given the option to "Remove background image." Unfortunately, this just reset my background image to whatever Google had chosen for me.
- davidmurphy 16y agoThat doesn't work for me -- just reverts to the default piggybank (?) photo. If I select a "white" background, it doesn't give the old Google page -- it has translucent text with shadows. Looks super ugly. Very annoying. Come on Google! People love you for your simplicity. That's one reason you broke away from Yahoo's then-dominance of search/startpages years ago.
- anedisi 16y agohmm. when i go to my local google the remove background image does not work properly. but on google.com it works every time.
- geuis 16y agoI created a 800x600px transparent png, then uploaded that as my background image. Sucks that its necessary but seriously, this is bs.
- buro9 16y agoThat's what I've just done too... well, a .gif. The white text of Google now looks terrible. It's really ugly no matter what now. I don't think I'll be visiting the home page again for a while... might set up one of their custom search boxes on a page of my own so that I can avoid the home page.
- koeselitz 16y agoFor those wondering how to get rid of the background (I sure was) - just 1. Sign in to Google. 2. Click the white "Change Background Image" link in the lower left-hand corner. 3. Select "Editor's Picks." 4. Scroll all the way to the bottom, where a plain white background is available. (Oddly enough, after being alarmed and even angered by the weird image, I actually found myself really liking a plain grey background.)
- travisp 16y agoThanks, I didn't notice the link because it was blending in with the background...
- SnydenBitchy 16y agoHoly cow. No wonder they have trouble retaining visual design talent.
- polvi 16y agoWhy would google do this?
- staunch 16y agoGoogle had Bing envy, so through a massive engineering effort and R&D they have managed to reverse engineer and clone Bing's #1 differentiator. Let The Search Engine Wars Begin Anew!
- papachito 16y agoGruber is that you?
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- cemregr 16y agoGoogle just doesn't get visual design right, when it's a bit more than just a plain UI. Chrome's themes are just ugly: https://tools.google.com/chrome/intl/en/themes/index.html https://tools.google.com/chrome/intl/en/themes/index.html Such are many of the background pictures Google is providing for the home page. It's sad.
- oldgregg 16y agoGoogle has a cult of data that I think is pretty dehumanizing. Perhaps they look ugly because they don't ultimately give a damn about the design -- only that the data told them they are losing market share.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- papachito 16y agoWhat are you talking about? Those backgrounds are beautiful especially those by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. As for Chrome's themes, they look fine to me.
- jamaicahest 16y agoHow is this news? If it was anyone but Google, nobody would care.
- locopati 16y agoSince Google is the #1 search engine by a extremely wide margin and this change is obviously a response to competition, and the change is poorly implemented, it becomes of interest to the HN crowd. Consider it a water-cooler topic - not earth shattering, but still a way to pass the time.
- erenemre 16y agohate it. use https://google.com https://google.com if you don't want the background.
- koeselitz 16y agoDoesn't work for me. I get the background no matter what. I've tried typing in every permutation. It's like they locked me out of removing the background. Ugh.
- u48998 16y agoGoogle can shove images up their arse. I don't give a damn. I was keeping them as my browser's home page as long as it was clean. Now I have switched to DDG.
- johnfn 16y agoNot that DDG is a bad idea, but that seems pretty rash seeing as they're only doing it for today, and you can opt out of it.
- locopati 16y agoWhy would you do this and not offer 'no background' as an option?
- Jun8 16y agoThe photos they provide are very nice, but as everybody has pointed out, they are pointless. However, what if the image was dynamically generated, say from news articles/photos or some other dynamic graphic that's related to the user. That's the only use I see.
- brianwillis 16y agoThe only site that I've seen really get themes right is WolframAlpha. Their small, tasteful theme gallery (http://www.wolframalpha.com/homesettings.html http://www.wolframalpha.com/homesettings.html) is really very well put together.
- gaiusparx 16y agoGoogle must be loosing market share to Bing to behave so panicky. First there is Bing like left column in search result page, and now the background image. Maybe they get sleepless with Bing appearing on iOS devices.
- BonoboBoner 16y agoCan I get my minimalist Google back?
- nreece 16y agoIf you don't want a background image then simply access Google via http://www.google.com http://www.google.com
- koeselitz 16y agoAh - blessed relief. Quoth Google: "Please be assured these images will only be displayed today, and the homepage will return to its regular white background tomorrow." See the response from one "Paul" (Google Employee) here: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Web%20Search/thread?tid=52d49a85dcfbdb9f&hl=en http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Web%20Search/thread?ti...
- noonespecial 16y agoWaiter, there's bing in my google.
- Chirag 16y agoThis was incredibly useless for both google and users.I can't see any point to it.
- mightybyte 16y agoThe first background image I got was absolutely awful. It greatly obscured the actual content of the page, and didn't look very good either. I tried the "Change background image" link, but couldn't actually change it without logging into a Google account. In fact, it was so awful that I left and did my search with Bing. Trying the homepage again just now I got an image that had a little more contrast with the page content, and looked a little better, but still is not very attractive overall. Most of the sample pictures they list don't look very appealing either. This is one of the biggest failures I've seen from Google. Marissa, if you're listening, please give us our white background back. I will not be executing any more Google searches with these backgrounds, and choosing my own background on an iGoogle homepage is not an acceptable solution. In all the time since my first Google search in the late 90s, this is the ONLY thing that has given me sufficient motivation to switch my default search engine away from Google.