Gmail gets New Look, How you can get it Too

It seems that Gmail, Google's free email service, is taking on the new look that Google.com got recently. It seems that this new red/grey look that Google.com, Google Maps, Google Calendar, and now Gmail, are all getting, is in celebration of Google's newly announced social network, Google+ (Google Plus).

Although Google+ is in an invite only stage, it is not a secretive project, and so we do know that Plus was the first service to receive the new Google look, so we can assume that Plus was the origin of the new theme.

So know that you know why Gmail looks different, you probably are wondering why it doesn't look different. Any change can scare users, so, at least for now, the new Gmail theme is a choice. In my opinion, a good choice, which is why I'm going to give you the simple steps to make this choice.

1. Log on to your Gmail account at mail.google.com. 
2. Look in the top right corner of the screen, where you will see a gear logo. Click on that.
3. A few options will come down. Click on Mail settings. 
4. A settings page with many tabs will appear, close to the right of the page, you will see Themes. Click on that.
5. The bottom row of themes will have Preview and Preview (Dense) in them. Dense is more compact, but both of them will give you the new look. Choose one, and click.
6. Viola! You are now seeing the Gmail's new look. Enjoy!

(To undo, follow these same steps, but instead of clicking on Preview or Preview (Dense), choose another theme.)

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Google Revamps it's Universal Web-App Look

The new Google.com Interface

Are you tired of that simple looking Google homepage? Do you wish Google would get rid of it's simplistic design, and make it more exciting. Well, thanks to the new Google web-app revamp, you are still out of luck.

The new Google.com design also applies to all of the other Google web-apps, and basically makes Google look simpler, although the Google experience hasn't changed much.

The new update puts the links Google.com all at either the top or bottom of the page, making it easier to see the blankness of the rest of the page. The Google logo is now slightly smaller, and this also makes is easier to see the blankness of the page.

It seems that the new Google color scheme is red and black. Although the actual Google logo hasn't changed, the bar of links to various Google services that hovers above most Google websites has gone from a light grey to a dark black. The site you are currently visiting is overlined nicely in red, and when you mouse over a link, the boxed area around it becomes a dark grey.

This red/black color scheme is more obvious on the actual page of search results. When searching for a word or phrase, the updated Google, like the older version, shows search results in the main area, and has a sidebar on the left side which allows you to search exclusively for images, videos, blogs, ect. This sidebar has changed in a few ways, most of them, in my opinion, for the better. As pictured below, the sidebar's few default search refining options are now spaced slightly further apart, and, while remaining the same font as the previous interface, are now dark grey. Instead of becoming bold when selected, the options now change to the nice shade of red used throughout the site. The icons are now grey instead of colored, and are changed slightly from the previous versions. When mousing over an option, the area around it becomes a shade of light grey.

The search-box area is also slightly changed in this new interface, as it is now boxed in grey and the search button is now a nice, rounded blue button, with a magnifying glass icon instead of the actual word "search". The Google logo on the left of the search box is now slightly smaller.

The new red/black theme makes the Google experience feel much more elegant, as well as simple, but it also makes it feel that the Google logo shouldn't be that colorful. Google has been using it's red, green, yellow, and blue color scheme as a base for it's new services, but some of the latest additions have seen a slightly different color scheme.

The new search interface

Overall, the new Google interface brings a cleaner interface, a simpler experience, and ultimately, more eye candy, something that was not in the early search engines, and has kind of become a new thing. Google was earned a +1 for this one.

It seems that the bar of links on top of most Google websites appears updated for everyone, but the newly designed home and search pages have not yet rolled out to all users.

Read Google's blog post here.


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A Google A Day: Huh?

     Early this morning, Google announced a new "product" on their official blog. Google announced that, partnered with the New York Times, they would be launching a trivia game. This trivia game, called A Google a Day, is different compared to traditional trivia games in the sense that, unlike normal trivia, you are encouraged to look up the answer.

The "A Google a Day" Homepage

     The website for the project, agoogleaday.com, shows the regular Google homepage, but the bottom fourth of the screen shows a bar with a trivia question. The area above it, with the Google homepage, is actually showing the internet as it was before the question was released, as to prevent cheating. One is supposed to search through Google and the internet to find the answer.

A Sample Trivia Question

     When I first read that Google was partnering up with the New York Times, I immediately thought that it would have something to do with news. A trivia puzzle just, well, seems strange. Anyway, the answer to the trivia question, along with search tips for how to find it, will be posted on the Google a Day website, as well as in the New York Times, the next day. 

     This is what seems to me as Google's first attempt at a game-like program. With Google working on improving Android, cleaning up their search results, and more, it just seems like a strange move, and was definitely unexpected. 

     

Google Allows Users to Block Sites from Search Results

     There has been recent controversy over whether or not Google's search results have been becoming less reliable, making sites that one would not find valuable coming up at the top. I talked a lot about this in a recent blog post. Google changed it's algorithm to try to bring higher quality sites up in the search results, and whether or not that worked has also been debated. Now Google, although they are keeping the algorithm change, is giving the user control.
     The new feature allows users to block all results from a specific website from their search results by clicking a link under the site in the results. The actual link is located directly under the website in the search result, next to the Cached and Similar buttons, and reads, "Block all [example.com] results".
     Google announced this feature yesterday on their official blog, and is rolling it out over the next few days. If you don't see it now, expect to see it soon.
     This is yet another attempt by Google to try to improve their results. It seems like a good idea, and it is definitely the first that actually allows human input. It seems like there should be an easier way to block a website, because I don't want to have to go back to Google search results to do it, but for now it should be an effective way to keep unwanted sites out of the search results.

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Google Updates Algorithm, Ranks Content Farms Lower

     When you search for something in Google, it's not so simple as to how the order of the results is determined. Google has an algorithm which decides the order of the results. Google gives some tips to site owners, stating what will make your site rank higher in the order. Although this does not tell exactly how the algorithm works, it allows owners of sites which a user might not want to appear in the search results to game the algorithm, and make their sites rank higher than some higher quality sites.

     Recently, people have been claiming that the Google search results have been getting worse, and putting low quality sights above high quality ones. Google responded to that by changing their algorithm to rank low quality, unwanted sites, lower than high quality sites. Since Google is supplying many of the ads on the sites that are now ranked lower with this new algorithm, and is therefore making a lot money of off them, i.t may seem like a bad business move to change the algorithm

     Some sites obviously should be ranked lower than others. For example, there are websites than completely copy popular blogs like Engadget, but put ads on the side which they get the money for. I personally had this experience with one of my blog posts being copied onto another blog. Websites like this are called content farms.

     With other sites, it's not so clear where they should go in the search results. Some websites are completely legit, but many users would not deem them useful, and therefore do not want them in their search results. Such sites include eHow. 

     eHow is a website with many how-to questions and answers. People in the technology business do not seem to like eHow, and think that the content there is not useful. I personally have used eHow and like it. Some of the content may seem simple, but a lot of it is useful information. 

     Before this algorithm change, a search for any how-to question would usually bring an eHow article at the top. Now a search brings in eHow and sites like it after more legit looking sites. Interestingly, the eHow website has a link to a survey.

     The eHow survey asked quite a few questions, all of them having to do with whether or not eHow is useful. This seems interesting, and with the recent algorithm change, I wouldn't be surprised if eHow takes the survey results to Google, saying that the results show that internet users believe that eHow is useful, and that it should rank higher in the search results.

     The obvious response of Google should be that the users surveyed were eHow users, meaning that the general internet does not necessarily think of eHow as useful, and still doesn't wan't it clogging up the search results. 

     

     

     

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