Google’s Search Results Ditch Underlined Links, Increase Font Size • Hacker News Board

Re: Google’s Search Results Ditch Underlined Links, Increase Font Size

#21

Post by ben174 » Thu, Mar 13, 2014, 8:34 PM UTC

xpose2000 wrote: post #13

I imagine this will lead to more ad clicks since people know by now that the peach background means that's an ad. Also, it makes more sense to go to the real source: http://searchengineland.com/googles-new-look-search-results-... which has covered this many times before.

And this is what scares me. Google ads are just plain dangerous. If they removed the malicious results this wouldn't be such a problem, but turn off your ad blocker and search for VLC.

Your top result will be malware and that's what most of my friends click. Any step to further disguise ads is a step further in this malware propagating itself.

Re: Google’s Search Results Ditch Underlined Links, Increase Font Size

#22

Post by wmeredith » Thu, Mar 13, 2014, 8:34 PM UTC

bluthru wrote: post #7

smacktoward wrote: post #6

I know the graphic designers have long since won this battle, but I still feel like there's value in underlining links. Underlined links are discoverable -- it's obvious at a glance that they are links, rather than body text. Underlined links are noticeable -- they stand out from a sea of non-underlined text, drawing the eye to them. Underlined links are self-explanatory -- it's obvious what you're supposed to do wit…

For links buried within copy, I agree. For a list of search results where you know every entry is a hyperlink? Pure visual noise and I'm glad it's gone.

I agree. As long time UX watchdog in many of the companies I work for (interaction designer/developer) I always want to see links underlined if they are inside a larger body of text. Menus and link lists? Not as big of a deal as long as it's still consistent with establish interaction patterns of the whole project.

Re: Google’s Search Results Ditch Underlined Links, Increase Font Size

#23

Post by mrmondo » Thu, Mar 13, 2014, 8:47 PM UTC

I personally quite enjoy the look, however I find the general inefficient use of screen real estate annoying. There is so much unused white space on the right hand side of search results.

Re: Google’s Search Results Ditch Underlined Links, Increase Font Size

#24

Post by dfxm12 » Thu, Mar 13, 2014, 8:57 PM UTC

mrmondo wrote: post #23

I personally quite enjoy the look, however I find the general inefficient use of screen real estate annoying. There is so much unused white space on the right hand side of search results.

What do you want there? More results? Ads? Something else slowing down page load times?

Google wants to deliver relevant results, and fast. Anything else is just slowing them down.

Re: Google’s Search Results Ditch Underlined Links, Increase Font Size

#25

Post by agumonkey » Thu, Mar 13, 2014, 8:59 PM UTC

smacktoward wrote: post #6

I know the graphic designers have long since won this battle, but I still feel like there's value in underlining links. Underlined links are discoverable -- it's obvious at a glance that they are links, rather than body text. Underlined links are noticeable -- they stand out from a sea of non-underlined text, drawing the eye to them. Underlined links are self-explanatory -- it's obvious what you're supposed to do wit…

First time I met this 'new' design, I thought it was a rendering bug[0]. Next time I understood it was testing, and I just thought 'why' ? Google seems desperate to find things to tweak while ignoring things that I find obvious:

  - right click event turns the url in a trackable monstrosity [1]
  - shortened url can't be copied [2]
  - no, sharing doesn't only mean 'publish on g+'
  - filters could be made faster [3]
  - g+ has comment notifications, gmail has nothing

[1] facebook => https://encrypted.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=facebook&sourc... and

[2] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.facebook.....

[3] instead of submenus that pops at opposite side, toggle buttons for instance year|month|week , or local|global . The old right side vertical list was better (even though lacking features).

[0] Chromium had some issues on my platform (or maybe just my distro) recently

Re: Google’s Search Results Ditch Underlined Links, Increase Font Size

#26

Post by geertj » Thu, Mar 13, 2014, 9:00 PM UTC

The adds are bigger and a lot less distinguishable as ads. The only thing distinguishing them now is the small "Ad" bubble.

At my screen resolution, about 70% of real estate is now filled with ads. I get an AltaVista deja-vu.

Google, for the record, I used to like your non-invasive, targeted ads, but I now installed AdBlock as a direct result of this change.

Re: Google’s Search Results Ditch Underlined Links, Increase Font Size

#27

Post by Legion » Thu, Mar 13, 2014, 9:00 PM UTC

I have to say, the little yellow "Ad" badge actually jumps out at me a lot more clearly than the colored background.

It doesn't seem like that should be the case, but I felt my eyes hitting the Ad badges and more easily filtering the ads from the search results.

Re: Google’s Search Results Ditch Underlined Links, Increase Font Size

#28

Post by dfxm12 » Thu, Mar 13, 2014, 9:01 PM UTC

jimmaswell wrote: post #16

Google making meaningless changes in the direction of minimalism like always. I find the google search of today no more usable or intuitive than that of 10 years ago. Minimalism is such a plague. It assumes people can't deal with the mildest hint of non-mission-critical information on the screen, which is false, or at least it used to be; if it catches on too much people's minds might get so rotted that they get conf…

I find the google search of today no more usable or intuitive than that of 10 years ago.

Do you find it any less usable, though?

We've been good at dealing with visual noise forever, before computers, before civilization.

Then we should be good at dealing with Google results without underlines too, right?

Re: Google’s Search Results Ditch Underlined Links, Increase Font Size

#29

Post by mrmondo » Thu, Mar 13, 2014, 9:03 PM UTC

dfxm12 wrote: post #24

mrmondo wrote: post #23

I personally quite enjoy the look, however I find the general inefficient use of screen real estate annoying. There is so much unused white space on the right hand side of search results.

What do you want there? More results? Ads? Something else slowing down page load times? Google wants to deliver relevant results, and fast. Anything else is just slowing them down.

More horizontal text from the search results would be nice, this would allow you to read / skim the results slightly quicker

Re: Google’s Search Results Ditch Underlined Links, Increase Font Size

#30

Post by geetee » Thu, Mar 13, 2014, 9:23 PM UTC

lnanek2 wrote: post #17

smacktoward wrote: post #6

I know the graphic designers have long since won this battle, but I still feel like there's value in underlining links. Underlined links are discoverable -- it's obvious at a glance that they are links, rather than body text. Underlined links are noticeable -- they stand out from a sea of non-underlined text, drawing the eye to them. Underlined links are self-explanatory -- it's obvious what you're supposed to do wit…

Yeah, honestly, at most places I work this would never fly because we support people with disabilities and that means having more than just color indicate something is a clickable link. There are even laws forcing this, ADA, for government and education. Personally, I think they should at least make the summary clickable if they are going to do this.

At risk of sounding heartless, catering to the lowest common denominator sucks. Like supporting IE6-level suckiness. There is more than enough information available in markup for accessibility software to override design choices.