The Smallest Change
posted by Jon Siegel
It’s the weekend, so we get to relax from more serious subjects.
When you use something every day — and when collectively we use it millions of times per day — you notice small changes. So have people noticed that Google changed its fonts? Type something into the search box. The font is bigger. I think it happened on Wednesday or Thursday of this week.
Google’s webpage has remained remarkably similar over the years of its meteoric rise. It turns its logo into a creative doodle on holidays and other special occasions, but basically the page still consists of a search box, two buttons, and a whole lot of white space. New services appear discreetly in the upper left. As other websites are constantly reinventing themselves with new looks, Google stays the same. Even the original, cheeky “I’m feeling lucky” button, which one might have exepected to change or disappear as the site grew into a mature company, is still grinning at users every day.
That makes it all the more noticeable when the site does change. A few months ago it started offering suggestions as you type in your search terms. That was a little creepy at first, but I’ve gotten used to it, and it does actually save a few seconds sometimes. (And I’m pleased to observe that if you type in “law prof ” (note the space at the end), then ”law prof on the loose” is the second suggestion.)
And now there’s a font change. Everything is bigger and they may have dropped the serifs (although I can’t remember whether they had serifs before).
Obviously it’s no big deal, but it’s like seeing an old friend with a new hairstyle, or discovering that the city has cut down a tree in your favorite park. It takes a little getting used to. I’m reminded of August, 2007, when the New York Times got smaller. It was still the Times, but it wasn’t quite what you expected.
Of course, now when I pick up the Times I can’t remember that it was ever bigger. I’m sure I’ll feel the same way about Google’s font in a month or two. But it is interesting to think that each tiny change will be seen by hundreds of millions, or perhaps billions, of users.
September 13, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Posted in: Technology
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Responses (4)
anon - September 13, 2009 at 4:49 pm
Not to bum you out, but the search suggestions are contextualized, and take into account your personal searching history, as well as your location and various other factors known only to Google. That a suggestion shows up for you doesn’t mean it will show up for someone else; it may just mean your personal search history shows several searches on that topic. If you check a lot to see if people are citing to or talking about Law Professor on the Loose, it will turn up as a suggestion for you, but not necessarily for anyone else.
This personalization raises an interesting privacy issue. If you were to sit down at a colleague’s computer, for example, and start a search, the suggestions might hint at what they’ve been searching for. If those suggestions are a bit spicey or suggestive, well, having that revealed is the price you pay for using Google.
Ask.com offers a feature called Ask Eraser that lets you wipe clean your personal search history, which means that suggestions on that search engine won’t reveal anything about what you’ve been looking for. So far, privacy has not proved to be compelling competitive advantage for Ask.
Carole - September 14, 2009 at 10:24 am
I just tried it and “law prof on the loose” was the second suggestion for me, as well.
Jon Siegel - September 14, 2009 at 11:04 am
Thanks to both. I have turned off Google’s tracking of my prior searches — I didn’t like having it keep track of me in that way. So I think the suggestion should be there for everyone, as Carole reports, although I haven’t personally checked this on a public computer.
But anyway, the main point of the post was Google’s font change.
Maryland Conservatarian - September 14, 2009 at 12:38 pm
wait…you still pick up the Times?
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