According to Search Engine Land, Google has been letting a “small number” of users try out a revamp to the search results page, and yours truly has been lucky enough to stumble onto it a few times. Unfortunately, the small number are only given a small chance of actually seeing the damn thing, and even a refresh will bump you out of the redesign.
Having seen it whoosh by me a few times, I was ready for it last week, and managed to poke around and snap a screenshot:
I don’t think it will do anything to stem the “spartan design” criticisms, but it definitely makes it easier to access the menagerie of advanced search functions (assuming the left nav menu becomes a permanent fixture). The chunky blocks for the “Everything” and “Search” buttons are surprisingly effective at framing the page, making the entire layout less nebulous and giving off less of that “just there” feeling. Aligning the search box with the results is another subtle touch with big impact.
The Search Engine Land article provides more screenshots and hands-on time; I’ll post more if Google decides to let everyone else look at more than 1 pageload at a time. In the meantime, compare the screenshot with the current advanced date search layout and see what you think.
i like the new blue buttons