The Classical Way
Google is known for its simplicity in User Interface (UI) design. Its UIs are easy to use, intuitive and free of clutter. The best example of this is http://www.google.com/ The world's most visited website just had a google logo, a text box and two buttons - "Google Search" and "I am Feeling Lucky". Over a period of time Google added links to other google applications such as News, Image Search, YouTube, Orkut, Photos and so on in addition to some language options. It even added a feature last year where all these options and links are hidden by default and get enabled only when you move the mouse a little. The story has it that when the google founders created google, they didn't know HTML coding and they created a very simple design which they could code. Over the period of time that became the signature design of google. Just a plain white background, google logo and a text box with two buttons. I loved it. Millions loved it the world over. However, Google just lost it... well almost.
The New Option
Recently google added a new link towards the left side bottom of google.com. It reads "Change Background Image". You need to sign-in with your google ID in order to use this feature. What this allows you to do is that you can either upload your own image or select from an existing set of publicly available images that you can set as background to your google.com home page. The image shows up in the background whenever you use google.com anywhere in the world. Issues
The classical plain white simplistic design has been googl's signature. I am not sure about the motivation for this feature. Somehow I feel, this is a step away from its own legacy. There are some challenges with it as well. The user can really shoot herself in the feet. Try uploading an image that is too small or too big to fit your screen. It messes up the entire look. Second issue is with the logo. Since google can not predict the image color scheme, it has made the logo transparent white. This is again a big deviation from the signature multi-color design of google logo. Thirdly, if you upload a heavy image, it makes the loading of the page slow. Google is known for its speed. Its the most reliable and fast website in the world. A heavy background can make it slow.
Copy Cat???
Did google find motivation for this feature in Microsoft's bing? The way Plain background has been the signature design for Google, beautiful background images has been the key design principle of Microsoft's new search engine - http://www.bing.com/ I love that as well. It has a slightly different approach and does not have any of the issues relating to googl's approach that I mentioned above. Every day it has a new, rich quality background image, showing some famous place in the world. It also provides some useful info about it on mouse over. It does not allow user-uploaded images. The user can not shoot in her feet. When it was introduced last year, this looked new and fresh. Many who used it, loved it.. including me. However, was this the motivation for the new feature in google? I hope not. I hope the biggest innovator on the Internet didn't have to copy it from Microsoft and had some other inspiration that I am not aware of.
Well, copying is not necessarily wrong. People can get inspired, and we usually separate inspiration from copying based on our perceptions. For example, if RD Burman copies, we say, he was inspired. If Anu Malik is inspired, we say, he has copied.
ReplyDeleteGoogle is giving people an option; it is not forcing the background image on anyone.
Disclaimer:
1. I like Google's white background
2. I like bing.com (for searches)
3. I like RD Burman more than Anu Malik
4. I do not hate Anu Malik
5. I feel sad that RD also copied blatantly - and was just not caught when he did so.
This is more philosophical. I don't like this feature not because the feature itself is useless (although it has some issues with the way google implemented it). It is more because it goes against the very DNA of google UI. It was uncalled for.
ReplyDeleteDNA has to keep changing to be relevant in changing times. There is always some new thought or idea that the next generation tools bring in and the existing leaders have to follow these to sustain their leadership - sounds paradoxical but always true.
ReplyDelete"here i , am you google peoples"
ReplyDelete-1- "thank you , so much to share with me right , now"
-2- "this is , my glorey that glorey , build like , this that is my life"
-3- "thank you , very much world pilots , abut your , wandrfull fliying , with politing"
-4- "thank you knowldeges thank you god"