

The art of the homepage - adamhowell
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/art-of-homepage.html

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cemregr
Google 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>

Such are many of the background pictures Google is providing for the home
page. It's sad.

~~~
oldgregg
Google 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.

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staunch
Google 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
Gruber is that you?

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chrisbolt
I 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.

~~~
petercooper
The link at the bottom left saying "Remove background image" puts it back to
normal. Proof: <http://skitch.com/petercooper/d8t8h/remove>

(Update: Seems this doesn't work for everyone!)

~~~
carbocation
Interesting; 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.

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koeselitz
Ah - 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?ti...](http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Web%20Search/thread?tid=52d49a85dcfbdb9f&hl=en)

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mightybyte
The 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.

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SnydenBitchy
Holy cow. No wonder they have trouble retaining visual design talent.

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gaiusparx
Google 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.

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ncarlson
Did anyone else get a default picture of the gulf oil spill?

~~~
mikeknoop
From what I can tell, yes.

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brianwillis
The only site that I've seen really get themes right is WolframAlpha. Their
small, tasteful theme gallery
(<http://www.wolframalpha.com/homesettings.html>) is really very well put
together.

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polvi
Why would google do this?

~~~
joezydeco
Bing!

~~~
xtacy
Bong!

~~~
joezydeco
Heh, I hear ya.

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noonespecial
Waiter, there's bing in my google.

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Jun8
The 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.

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Chirag
This was incredibly useless for both google and users.I can't see any point to
it.

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locopati
Why would you do this and not offer 'no background' as an option?

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BonoboBoner
Can I get my minimalist Google back?

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jamaicahest
How is this news? If it was anyone but Google, nobody would care.

~~~
locopati
Since 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.

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erenemre
hate it.

use <https://google.com> if you don't want the background.

~~~
koeselitz
Doesn'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.

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u48998
Google 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
Not 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.

