From what I know of Google (knowing more every day as I'm reading In the plex), they certainly did a whole lot of A/B testing before choosing this black bar. It

From what I know of Google (knowing more every day as I'm reading In the plex), they certainly did a whole lot of A/B testing before choosing this black bar. It nonetheless sticks out unpleasantly. I really dislike it. Yahoo News has a dark blue bar which is a lot more pleasant. When using a personalized background image, it also is somewhat better. But on the standard Google page, meh.