Why Google Search Looks Different Today

Mar 12, 2014 04:12 PM EDT | Jordan Ecarma

If you wondered if your search results looked a little different today, you're right. Google has changed up its search engine, eliminating underlines on the listed websites and changing how advertisements are denoted.

The redesign has a larger font size, while ads are labeled with the word "Ad" in yellow instead of being highlighted as before, Mashable reported. Google seems to be rolling out the new look across the board since a similar redesign appeared for mobile users in September.

The Mountain View, Calif.-headquartered company decided to remove the big banner ads on top of the search page after deciding they didn't benefit users, Forbes reported.

"We are always testing things," Google search ranking chief Amit Singhal told media on Tuesday at a conference in San Jose, as reported by Forbes.

"We have to experiment with things and let the data tell you what to do. Like on the big banner ad people saw, we looked at the results and decided not to do it. There's a team of PhDs gathering every piece of data we can about our experiments and if it doesn't benefit users, we don't do it."

The banner ads were reportedly controversial when they launched last October and angered some users, Venture Beat said. Google called the ads a "brand image experiment" at the time.

According to TechCrunch, the search engine change is a massive "bucket" test for Google to try out the new look. While the web version may be an experiment, the redesign has been introduced to tablet and mobile already, and the new online look seems to imply the tech giant is going this direction.

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