Google new look
Posted by Mr magoo on 07 March 2004 - 14:36 · 62 comments & 4355 views
We covered this a while back (here). Essentially, by means of a special cookie Google has been testing out a new look on a select few users. Although we were unable to give you access to the new look at the time, we did have screenshots (see previous article).

However, thanks to our member poind and Jesse Ruderman, Mozilla developer, you can now access the different Google yourself. Main changes can be seen for yourself or in the screenshots in the forum thread (link below). Notable revisions include a revised image search, changes to the "cached links" page, and style changes to search results.

To view the new Google, you need to change the cookie that google sends to you. Jesse Ruderman has coded a javascript bookmarklet. In your browser, right click the link and bookmark it. Go to Google, and then click on the bookmark, and voila!

View: Jesse Ruderman's Blog | Update : bookmark @ Jesse's Blog.
View: Forum Post and screenshots
View: Google.com

The 32 bit version supports Drag&Drop from and to explorer/desktop, delete to the recycle bin, and Explorer style context menus/property sheets. FTP servers on the Internet can be accessed like local drives.A configurable directory hotlist (bookmarks) and history list make directory navigation easier.

The sync function allows to synchronize two complete directory trees, and the compare function shows the difference of two binary or text files highlighted side by side. The new parallel port connection works between any combination of Windows 95/98/ME, Windows NT 4, Windows 2000/XP, Windows 3.1 and even DOS through a separate server.

NOTE: The update is still free for all registered users (also of Windows Commander)

What's New in This Release:

  • Fixed: With file panels above each other, the mouse wheel may have scrolled the wrong window
  • Fixed: Ctrl+Q on drive in "My Computer" turned off quick view permanently



There are 62 additional comments
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(3 replies) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #1 Posted by sim1 on 07 Mar 2004 - 14:42
why is there no way to search for wallpaper sized images?
Quote this comment #1.1 Posted by andrewfee on 07 Mar 2004 - 14:44
That's was removed a long time ago.
Quote this comment #1.2 Posted by georgi55 on 07 Mar 2004 - 17:40
Anyone know why?
Quote this comment #1.3 Posted by [ timko ] on 07 Mar 2004 - 22:25
wOw I didn't know they used to have a search by size feature... that would have been handy
(4 replies) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #2 Posted by QuaKeD on 07 Mar 2004 - 14:46
Didn't work here (Mozilla Firefox 0.
Quote this comment #2.1 Posted by vetMr magoo on 07 Mar 2004 - 14:52
1. bookmark the link
2. go to google (link above)
3. click the bookmark
4. profit!

it does work - its working here
Quote this comment #2.2 Posted by ranvier on 08 Mar 2004 - 07:21
A note here: It seems that this trick will work on just GOOGLE.COM and not google.com.xx
Quote this comment #2.3 Posted by [ timko ] on 08 Mar 2004 - 23:18
Well I did this on Google.Com and the changes were still present when I visited G.Co.Uk.. I haven't tried any other countries yet...

...but if you look closely at the bookmark link (ie. edit it when it's in your bookmark list, you can change it to set the cookie for whatever country you want... assuming doing it the way I did doesn't work for you)
Quote this comment #2.4 Posted by mipra on 12 May 2004 - 05:19
ehehhe..nicely put
(1 reply) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #3 Posted by shrike on 07 Mar 2004 - 14:47
I thought this was just a Mozilla/Firefox thing. Every time I use IE, I get the 'old' google, but every time with Firefox, the new one. Even after fresh installs... the same thing.
Quote this comment #3.1 Posted by [ timko ] on 08 Mar 2004 - 23:19
You sure you done the bookmark link thing in IE as well as firefox? You need to do it in each separate browser since the don't share a common cookie file
(3 replies) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #4 Posted by VaLUnTriAn on 07 Mar 2004 - 14:51
It doesn't work for me either..using IE6SP1.
Quote this comment #4.1 Posted by bunnios on 07 Mar 2004 - 15:33
i edited the cookie manually replacing the ID in mine with the one stated on Jesse's blog (102c51875a8839e9). After saving i closed then reopened ie (to prevent any cachine) and voila, new google.
Quote this comment #4.2 Posted by [ timko ] on 08 Mar 2004 - 23:20
Manual editing is another way of doing it yes
Quote this comment #4.3 Posted by mipra on 12 May 2004 - 05:19
hehehe...
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #5 Posted by synopsis on 07 Mar 2004 - 15:03
Not working for me in firefox either :/
(2 replies) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #6 Posted by Flatty on 07 Mar 2004 - 15:06
I actually do not see any evident and basically "useful" visual change on that shoz... I just love Google for its simplicity and direct interface. In any case, just to make a comparison, a good example of style and "fast" site could be another Google-style engine such as www.alltheweb.com (see main search and pics search). Fast, clean, easy to read (and skinnable too... useless but nice). That would be a layout change. Other than that, I would leave Google as we know it
Quote this comment #6.1 Posted by mad_scientist on 07 Mar 2004 - 15:38
true
Quote this comment #6.2 Posted by [ timko ] on 08 Mar 2004 - 23:23
The clean, simple yet sleek look that Google currently have does promote (and indeed provide due to non-clutter) speed
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #7 Posted by dolby71 on 07 Mar 2004 - 15:12
Working great with firefox 0.8. It's a bit nicer, but no fundamental change...
(1 reply) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #8 Posted by SniperX on 07 Mar 2004 - 15:32
Jeees, hardly monumental changes. Not even worth bothering with in fact.
Quote this comment #8.1 Posted by [ timko ] on 07 Mar 2004 - 15:45
Agreed. Why is it worth digging this up again? It's been covered before in the forums where the cookie was provided (and can be easily converted for other browsers) and now it's been covered in the main page news twice...
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #9 Posted by mad_scientist on 07 Mar 2004 - 15:36
i like the new google .. i saw it the other day .. but there are parts i feel need work
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #10 Posted by Dr.Jones on 07 Mar 2004 - 15:49
I don't even see differences.. And it's not a problem on my end, I'm talking about the screenshots..
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #11 Posted by The_Decryptor on 07 Mar 2004 - 15:55
It's not working for me, i go to google.com, click the bookmarklet and the page refreshes to the normal look, im using IE6 SP1
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #12 Posted by Jstphish on 07 Mar 2004 - 16:05
Not working here, Tryed in IE and Firefox.
(1 reply) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #13 Posted by Carlson-online on 07 Mar 2004 - 16:12
Firefox/Camino/Mozilla users:
just manually edit your cookies.txt file with the user ID 102c51875a8839e9

Works a treat!
Quote this comment #13.1 Posted by [ timko ] on 07 Mar 2004 - 22:35
Shame it isn't as easy with Opera 7... even tried the blog entry technique... looks like I have to get dirty with the .dat file (which isn't plaintext)
(6 replies) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #14 Posted by MikeCoz on 07 Mar 2004 - 16:14
High Quality Google Screenshots
(Orginally posted by me in this thread: They changed Google)

Google Homepage
http://www.neowin.net/forum/uploads/post-7...-1077431806.png

Google Web Search (Top)
http://www.neowin.net/forum/uploads/post-7...-1077431874.png

Google Web Search (Bottom)
http://www.neowin.net/forum/uploads/post-7...-1077431983.png

Google News
http://www.neowin.net/forum/uploads/post-7...-1077432151.png

Last edited by 25375 on 07 Mar 2004 - 17:28
Quote this comment #14.1 Posted by jagedEdge on 07 Mar 2004 - 17:17
Heh, the web search looks a bit different over here. Notice the gradients.

Google Web Search Top: http://synerage.spymac.net/google_top.jpg
Google Web Search Bottom: http://synerage.spymac.net/google_bottom.jpg
Quote this comment #14.2 Posted by MikeCoz on 07 Mar 2004 - 17:28
... maybe its firefox?? wierd
Quote this comment #14.3 Posted by The_Decryptor on 07 Mar 2004 - 17:45
I have the gradients and im using IE6
Quote this comment #14.4 Posted by jagedEdge on 07 Mar 2004 - 18:34
Firefox on Mac renders the gradients (at least for me). As well as Camino, Safari, OmniWeb, etc.
Quote this comment #14.5 Posted by MikeCoz on 07 Mar 2004 - 22:04
then i wonder WTF the problem is?? actually i think it might look better without the gradient. seems a little cleaner and simpler

edit: ok i changed my cookie with the bookmark thing and i see the gradient now. thats wierd. i wonder why it didnt show when I took those shots.
Quote this comment #14.6 Posted by [ timko ] on 08 Mar 2004 - 23:24
Lol, glad you can see the gradients now
(1 reply) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #15 Posted by Sushubh on 07 Mar 2004 - 16:23
not working here on firefox/opera/IE...
it works after accessing the other bookmarklet from the blog entry and it looks smooooooth!

Last edited by 30086 on 07 Mar 2004 - 16:33
Quote this comment #15.1 Posted by [ timko ] on 07 Mar 2004 - 22:32
I got it working in Firefox no probs with the blog entry guide. No go in Opera 7.23 and haven't tried IE yet tho.
(5 replies) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #16 Posted by SniperX on 07 Mar 2004 - 16:33
So what's new? The blue at the bottom? Is that it? lol
Quote this comment #16.1 Posted by Sushubh on 07 Mar 2004 - 17:23
it's a search engine. what else u want?
Quote this comment #16.2 Posted by SniperX on 07 Mar 2004 - 18:26
lol Well, how about something to make it newsworthy? Am I being too radical?

Hell, how about "Google adds a comma to home page"?
Quote this comment #16.3 Posted by Sushubh on 07 Mar 2004 - 19:15
if microsoft suing mikerowesoft.com kid was news,
this is more worthy than that!

its google for god sake. i makes and breaks people careers!
Quote this comment #16.4 Posted by SniperX on 07 Mar 2004 - 20:22
lol The splash of blue doesn't though!
Quote this comment #16.5 Posted by [ timko ] on 08 Mar 2004 - 23:25
Indeed
(1 reply) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #17 Posted by The_Decryptor on 07 Mar 2004 - 16:35
I hand edited my cookie file to the new number, and google still looks the same
Quote this comment #17.1 Posted by [ timko ] on 07 Mar 2004 - 22:26
did you also try the method described in the linked blog entry?
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #18 Posted by The_Decryptor on 07 Mar 2004 - 16:39
My bad, i had to reload ie so it re-loaded the new cookie, the new site looks nice and in my opinion actually loads faster (for me anyway)
(2 replies) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #19 Posted by tommie on 07 Mar 2004 - 17:14
Yea, doesn't look like any big changes. Shouldn't be news
Quote this comment #19.1 Posted by Rivers on 07 Mar 2004 - 20:46
AGREED!
Quote this comment #19.2 Posted by [ timko ] on 07 Mar 2004 - 22:27
Shouldn't be news TWICE either
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #20 Posted by deadmonkey on 07 Mar 2004 - 18:24
For some reason I have had this cookie for ages in IE however I really don't like the new look. I prefer the old style.
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #21 Posted by GamerZ on 07 Mar 2004 - 19:06
it works, I changed my cookie manually.
(2 replies) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #22 Posted by Kevine on 07 Mar 2004 - 20:20
You have to use the bookmarklet thingy that is on the blog entry... for some reason the one that Neowin has does not work
Quote this comment #22.1 Posted by jruderman on 07 Mar 2004 - 22:42
Neowin's copy of my bookmarklet is missing a backslash in a regular expression. It has /ID=w+:/ where it should have /ID=w+:/ . (w matches the letter w. w matches "word characters", which are letters, numbers, and underscores.)

I wonder what caused the backslash to disappear.
Quote this comment #22.2 Posted by vetMr magoo on 07 Mar 2004 - 23:35
Hi jesse; thanks very much for posting that. I think we have some kind of regex filter on the news system we run here
(1 reply) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #23 Posted by Rivers on 07 Mar 2004 - 20:45
YAY a load of messing about for exactly nothing!
Quote this comment #23.1 Posted by [ timko ] on 07 Mar 2004 - 22:26
It's not much of a change but it's better than nothing
(2 replies) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #24 Posted by virtorio on 08 Mar 2004 - 05:14
I don't care for their "new look". I think they should just leave their current style alone.
Quote this comment #24.1 Posted by ranvier on 08 Mar 2004 - 07:23
Indeed. Just some gradient added. LOL~
Quote this comment #24.2 Posted by Ekimus on 08 Mar 2004 - 16:06
If you look at the screenshots, you'll notice that Google experimented with more than just the gradient. Search info and links have been reorganized to promote better accessibility and usability. For example, notice that on the current Google front page, the Advanced Search and Preferences links appear in a small font to the right of the search textbox and in the search pages themselves, it appears above the textbox. In the screenshots, Google has tried to achieve a consistent look by having those links appear to the right of the search textbox in search pages. It's subtle but small modifications like these go a long way towards promoting usability and efficiency. Little details like this are why I continue to use Google. Even as their execs are probably recalculating their expected net worth post-IPO every 5 mins, the engineers are making efforts to improve their search engine and results, however subtle or unnoticed.

Google also looks like they'll be bringing lab projects out of beta and onto the forefront. On the front page and search results, the Web | Images | Groups | Directory | News tabs have been replaced with four links and a "more >>" link a la Amazon. I'm guessing they're experimenting with ways to allow access to Froogle, Catalogs, other Google Labs projects, and maybe even a Blogger Search without cluttering the header. I personally think it's a step backwards - I like having all my links displayed, even if it stretches across the page because at least I'll know exactly where to look in the future. From an usability point of view, the "See more stores" tab on Amazon frustrates me to no end.

Someone should send links to these images to Jakob Nielsen and get his take on Google's lil experiments.
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #25 Posted by ramik on 08 Mar 2004 - 10:29
it's a nice look.

when it was first launched, i was one of the lucky to get the cookie, but it was lost, and i returned to the old style.

Thanks for the tip...
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #26 Posted by mihir on 09 Mar 2004 - 18:47
there not that different. i just hope it doesn't change into looking like all the others with a million links underneath the search bar.
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #27 Posted by SoLiD_MasteR on 29 Mar 2004 - 15:07
I hate the new look
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