All of a sudden Google looks a lot more colorful this morning. Staid be gone. And it seems that with Bing, Microsoft can still throw a hay-maker, and influence a certain Silicon Valley nemesis on occasion. In case you missed it, background photos are now available on the previously minimalist white-only Google search screen. Yes, that’s not a screen saver. That’s the tried-and-true search screen you know and love.
And by now, just about everyone will know about it, because it’s now switched on by default. People just can’t search these days. They must feel inspired while searching. Or so goes the thought. An option in the lower left hand corner does allow you to switch it off, or select your favorite from a gallery. At first, I found the whole thing rather annoying, but now I admit it’s growing on me. Seems the Golden Gate Bridge is more interesting then white space.
But what’s really—or marginally, your choice—interesting is that when it comes to colorful search interfaces, Bing was the innovator. Not Google. How many times do you recall Mountain View looking to Redmond for ideas? What’s that expression, something about flattery, sincere, love… I can’t recall.
According to Nielsen, Google is #1 with 65.1% of searches, followed by Yahoo (13.5%) and Microsoft Bing (12.9%)
So there you have it. Colorful search. The web browser, just one more step closer to acting like a PC desktop, colorful wallpaper and all.
