Is it just me or has the amount of white space around the Google logo and the search box on all search results page increased?

Screenshot: http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/6977/originali.png

Can't find a perfect screenshot to compare it with. But this one comes close: http://blogoscoped.com/files/google-search-options-alternatives-2-large.png

Look at the white space around the logo. It seams like it has increased.

For reference, Google.com vs Google.de (both from just now): http://blogoscoped.com/files/google-germany-white-space-2009.png

Looks great, Google has always looked cluttered to me, colours on results pages are disgusting as well... it's the algorithm that keeps me coming back.

Looks to put more focus on the brand /logo.

The moment finally came. Google does need a face lift.

More white space pushes the results down. When there are ads at the top, this increases the ratio of ads to results in the visible part of the page...

But Kevin Fox's explanation sounds more likely: uncluttering. Along the lines of his comments, I've recently sometimes received results pages showing the first 7 results instead of the first 10.

You guys notice everything...

<< I've recently sometimes received results pages showing the first 7 results instead of the first 10. >>

It's more likely that the 3 missing results where videos that were grouped in a Google Video universal result. They are considered web pages.

E.g.: http://www.google.com/search?q=matt+cutts&gl=us

See Marissa Mayer at Google I/O 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6x0cAzQ7PVs

She explains A/B testing on whitespace in that talk at 12:12.

My speculation is that average monitor sizes went up and this A/B testing recently showed that people are more comfortable with larger whitespaces simply because their monitors provide larger canvas space.

More information about this change:
http://googlejapan.blogspot.com/2009/06/google.html