Google Introduces New Homepage With “Fades In”

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You may have noticed that Google homepage is sporting a new look. Google has released a new version of the classic homepage. The main characteristic of the new homepage is that it "fades in" when the page first loads, it shows only the logo, the search box and the buttons. For the immense majority of people who come to the Google homepage, they are coming in order to search, and this clean, modest approach gives them just what they are looking for first and foremost. For those users who are interested in using a different request like Gmail, Google Image Search or our advertising programs, the additional links on the homepage only reveal themselves when the user moves the mouse. Since most users who are interested in clicking over to a diverse application generally do move the mouse when they arrive, the "fade in" is an stylish solution that provides options to those who want them, but removes distractions for the user intent on searching.


For the past few months, the google has been experimenting with homepage designs like this and have run numerous live tests on the site. They do these live tests they are making a change that they think may fundamentally affect how people use the site.

All in all, they have run approximately 10 variants of the fade-in. Some of the experiments delayed the user experience: for example, the variants of the homepage that hid the search buttons until after the fade performed the nastiest in terms of user happiness metrics. Other variants of the experiment produced hilarious outcomes when joint with our doodles the barcode doodle combined with the fade was particularly ironic in its overstated minimalism. However, in the end, the variant of the homepage they have launched was positive or neutral on all key metrics, except one: time to first action. Google is all about getting you where you are going faster.

Internally, a huge number of Google employees have been using the new homepage. It represents focus on great search yet helps searchers efficiently access all of Google's products. Like the new supersized search box they launched several months ago, this change is one that is very obvious at first, and then quickly becomes second nature.

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