

Now you see it, now you don't (Google rolls out fade-in homepage) - andrewpbrett
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/now-you-see-it-now-you-dont.html

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thaumaturgy
Hah! A couple of weeks back I was working (face-time) with a client, trying to
figure out some bizarre website behaviors on a project.

Every time we loaded the Google home page, it did the fade in thing, and I
couldn't replicate it on any of my systems, even though the client was hooked
into my local network at the time.

It drove me _nuts_ , doubly so since I couldn't find any evidence of it
happening to anyone else. I finally concluded that either Google had done
something funky with their page code, or something was hosed up in a bizarre
way in her copy of IE 8.

Thanks, Google.

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ericd
Heh the hazards of A/B tests... I often wonder what percentage of A/B test
subjects casually use one anothers' computers and get confused/annoyed.

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NathanKP
I loved the screenshot of the ultra minimalistic barcode logo and fade
combination:

[http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_7ZYqYi4xigk/Sxb_MsMIxyI/AAAAAAAAFC...](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_7ZYqYi4xigk/Sxb_MsMIxyI/AAAAAAAAFC0/IqU_3tGQCUU/s1600-h/barcode_mockup_fade.gif)

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hellotoby
I'm not sure I really see the point of this. I mean the fade lasts for approx.
3 seconds, by which time I have hardly got my cursor to the search box let
alone started typing. I agree they could reduce some of the other visual noise
on the page but this seems... unnecessary.

[edit] I also use the top left controls an awful lot to access gmail etc.
since I have google set as my homepage. Now I have to wait before I can access
these? Poor usability. [/edit]

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liuliu
It seems like if you move your mouse, the homepage will show everything. The
idea seems to be just go to google.com, and type what you want to search
without moving your mouse.

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hellotoby
Ah, well spotted. I didn't notice that. I stand by my original point though,
why should I have to wait?

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DougBTX
They are making you wait so that users on their happy path have less
distractions.

Worth noting that the animation lasts about half a second, not three. And that
people on the happy path will not need to wait. And that the main problem
isn't the wait, but that if you want Mail or News you have to move the mouse
before you know where to click, so the initial movement will be in the wrong
direction.

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nooneelse
If the fade in elements stay in the same places, then won't low-level/muscle
memory take care of the initial movement being usually in the right direction?

~~~
DougBTX
I'd entertain the possibility, but I'm not sure. I hardly ever access
google.com directly. I mostly use Chrome, where I search from the address bar
directly, and in Safari and Firefox I search using the "g %s" bookmark from
the address bar. I have gmail as a thumbnail in the Chrome new tab start page,
and in other browsers I type it in directly.

So, no anecdotes from me. Hopefully the Google guys have tested this
themselves, and perhaps it does happen.

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tptacek
I hate this passionately. Google is my home page, and now every time I open a
new browser window, I see a distracting animation.

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sfk
<http://www.google.com/intl/en/> is still non-bloated.

If they are going to ruin that page too, Bing will suddenly become more
attractive.

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julio_the_squid
Mmm... maybe I'm just feeling flibbly today but I'm not a big fan of this. It
makes me feel seasick for some reason.

~~~
ewiethoff
I'm sure you're not alone. My beau gets motion sickness at the sight of some
GUIs, and I get seizures from same. Hence, I will not be taking a look at
Google's new homepage, and I'm going to warn him about this change.

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jsz0
I think it serves some purpose. Google's homepage is so plain you could almost
mistake it for being antiquated and neglected. This little fade effect is a
subtle reminder that it's simplistic by design.

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chris100
Isn't it poor user interface design to _hide_ controls?

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whughes
Their metrics indicate that it works, and I'm inclined to believe the hard
evidence over the vague guidelines of the UI textbooks. Besides, Google is
used extremely frequently. They may want an interface that is efficient rather
than one that is immediately intuitive.

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jarsj
What is more interesting to notice is the aggressive use of Javascript on
Google's homepage as for long Google has tried to keep the old browsers
without JS support in mind. This indicates that the web is rapidly moving
towards more advanced browsers.

~~~
robryan
With chrome now Google has a vested interest in pushing the benefits of
JavaScript in web applications, then telling IE users that chrome will improve
performance.

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macrael
One nice benefit of the change is that the home page now looks much nicer in a
"top sites" or "speed dial" or whatever you want to call it mode. It stands
out.

I like it.

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sroerick
This is a really interesting user experience shift, given the minimalist
nature of chrome.

It's almost like a little HAL box.

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MikeCapone
I like it, but it's mostly an aesthetic response. Maybe it's not a big
improvement in usability, but it certainly is visually.

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ams6110
Is this supposed to be what everyone sees? I don't see any fade-in effects on
their home page. (Mac OS X 10.4 and Safari 4).

~~~
chrischen
Me neither. But I'm also using Safari 4.

Few weeks back, on my friend's IE8, the homepage was missing the Google Search
and I'm Feeling Lucky Buttons. So they're probably just testing it on select
users still, or testing it on IE 8.

~~~
lanaer
They were testing it back then, but now it seems they are launching it to
everyone. However, gotta clear caches in Safari to see it.

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neilk
In general, the home page of an organization tells you everything you need to
know about its internal structure. Companies that don't know what they're
doing have confusing home pages. A focused company has a very clean home page.
This is one step beyond even that.

Say what you will about Google, but name any other big web property that
innovates on core services like this. Facebook maybe. Who else?

~~~
ryanwaggoner
Amazon. I know many will complain about how they're cluttered, but Amazon is
very test-centric and is constantly evolving their site based on statistical
testing to improve the business metrics that matter to them.

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neilk
Lots of stuff on the page != cluttered != confusing

