Google Gets Rid of Something You've Been Seeing Since 1996

Notice anything different as you search on Google today?

You may notice the familiar lines - that have been a part of Google since their first days in 1996 as research project to crawl the internet - have disappeared.

SearchEngineLand compared the two Google results side by side (Image via SearchEngineLand).

The Internet giant says the redesign is here to stay. Eighteen years after their humble beginning, Google is now removing the last of the designs left over from the 90s style. Some tech sentimentalists may miss the familiar highlighting method for web developers, but Google is ready to leave the old look behind.

"You may have noticed that Google Search on desktop looks a little different today,"  said Jon Wiley, Google’s lead design for Google Search. "We've increased the size of result titles, removed the underlines, and evened out all the line heights. This improves readability and creates an overall cleaner look."

SearchEngineLand reported that on the ad side, Google migrated over the “new ad labels from mobile, making the multi-device experience more consistent," and is trying to make the mobile and desktop experience unified.

"Improving consistency in design across platforms makes it easier for people to use Google Search across devices and it makes it easier for us to develop and ship improvements across the board," Wiley said.

The changes might seem minor, especially for non-programmers. But for Google it’s a significant change to a search engine that rarely changes its design. According to The Verge, the updates also seem to mimic the modern touch-friendly sites that have opted for increased page elements as more consumers move towards tablets and smartphones.

The Verge also compared the looks; Google says omitting the underlines and increasing the size of result titles improves readability and creates an overall cleaner look. (Image via The Verge)

So what do you think of the new look? We think anything that makes TheBlaze stories easier to find and read is probably a good thing. Who wants to stay in the 90s anyway?

--

(H/T: The Verge)

 Follow Elizabeth Kreft (@elizabethakreft) on Twitter.