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Google Introduces, Then Scraps, Bing-Style Background Images

Posted by timothy on from the go-beyond-your-imitations dept.

NIN1385 writes "Google has scrapped the now infamous background image option on its homepage. After 14 hours of a scheduled 24-hour experiment to see how people liked (or disliked) the new homepage layout, the company must have found out it was very disliked. I guess the fact that 'remove Google background' was the seventh most searched for phrase today might have had something to do with it."

6 of 466 comments (clear)

  1. I still see the link by iamapizza · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The feature still seems to be available - so you can set an image if you want, but I guess they won't be providing you with one of their own picked images as a default.

    --
    Always proofread carefully to see if you any words out.
    1. Re:I still see the link by sakdoctor · · Score: 5, Interesting

      "Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away"

      The google homepage was perfect, practically from it's inception, up to a few years ago.
      Recent experiments have made me switch from a search engine homepage, to the firefox search bar. Since the firefox bar is a list, it also encourages me to shop around for results.

  2. Re:There is a reason... by quantumplacet · · Score: 5, Interesting

    That's a pretty false dichotomy. Yes, the majority of people do seem to like Google better than they like Bing, Yahoo etc. But that doesn't mean all those people think everything Google does is perfect and they never want anything changed or have any new features added. Ultimately, if Google took your advice and search development became completely stagnant, then eventually the other search providers would improve over time and overtake Google.

  3. How clever of them... by Jafafa+Hots · · Score: 5, Interesting

    See, it was all a plan - give us a day of "Google as Bing" and demonstrate with cold hard data that people don't like Bing's style and prefer Google. Shut up carpers among stockholders that were screaming "do something!" to respond to Bing grabbing 2 percent market share, AND wipe MS's nose it it.

    Yeah, that was the plan all along.

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    This space available.
  4. Re:Microsoft Responds by MozeeToby · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Haha, yeah, I'm sure MS if gloating about how Google copied them. On the other hand, the response to the 'Bing' flavored Google was overwhelmingly negative, which can't make them feel too good. Especially since a lot of the comments that I saw were along the lines of "If I wanted this crap I would go use Bing".

  5. Re:Opera users didnt have a problem by Flipao · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Funnily enough email addresses with the word spam on them get no spam at all, the word is stripped by pretty much every sniffer out there :)