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Google Homepage to be ReDesigned

Search-Engines-Web.com [PersonRank 10]

Tuesday, March 20, 2007
17 years ago15,710 views

Sprucing up its famously plain Web site, Google Inc. is offering a new option that plants its Internet search box in panoramic settings that change with the time of day and the outside weather.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/GOOGLE_DECORATIONS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Corsin Camichel [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Check this out:

http://cocaman.ch/wp/2007/03/googlecom-gets-colorful-and-redesign/

It works great (once out of 100 tries or so). But it's pretty cool. Maybe we all can make theme in the future!

Hong Xiaowan [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

This is cool. Let's try it

Eytan Buchman [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

This actually look much nicer than I thought it would. It also gets you thinking – so many sites are designed with the paramount goal being not using a lot of graphics so that the page loads quicker. Now that so many people have broadband modems and the like, it could be time to reassess the situation. By the way, I am using the bust stop theme and it looks real good.

Mambo [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

I'm a fan of the Beach theme...

Ben Licher [PersonRank 1]

17 years ago #

It looks lovely, but how to get rid of the choose yout theme box, which is now on every tab I created!

Lubsy [PersonRank 1]

17 years ago #

[put at-character here]Ben: Just click on "Select theme" again and choose "Classic Google"

Colin Colehour [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

This hasn't been pushed out to my account yet. :(

Prashanth [PersonRank 2]

17 years ago #

This is just what I was waiting for but there seems to be a small bug (or something else)

Current time is 5:30 CST AM and I have personalized page with a new theme. I had it set as my home page in firefox. When I open Firefox the page shows as sunrise but when I open manually it still shows as night (This is correct based on sunrise time of 7:01 today)

I can reproduce with all the themes.

David T [PersonRank 7]

17 years ago #

This is very cool! The fact they are dynamic is a nice feature!

Prashanth [PersonRank 2]

17 years ago #

And may be in near future Google might open its themes to everyone and allow anyone to create and upload. Users can rate and download themes same like modules or gadgets. This will create a huge themes directory.

Michael Schaap [PersonRank 3]

17 years ago #

“Please enter a location (your city and state or zipcode) to update this theme correctly.”
Sigh...

photoactive [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

[put at-character here] Philipp: You're missing "city scape" from your poll, so I can't vote! (It's the only one of the current lot I like, though I like it v much.)

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

> It looks lovely, but how to get rid of the choose yout
> theme box, which is now on every tab I created!

You also need to hit "save" and "ok"...

> You're missing "city scape" from your poll

Oooops. Will update soon.

kb [PersonRank 1]

17 years ago #

I wish the bus stop changed people not just weather. The tea house appears to have the most noticable changes with the time I haven't seen much with changing the weather (I can't find a zip where it is snowing). I think this is a good start to some fun stuff but eventually I'm sure the bus will pull up with an add on the front of it.

Prashanth [PersonRank 2]

17 years ago #

[Moved]

//The designs also will contain hidden surprises known as "Easter eggs" that will open up with an opportune click at the right time of the day, Mayer said. She wouldn't reveal any of the surprises, but indicated they will delight high-tech geeks with a sense of humor. --AP

Lets start finding them people...

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

[Updated the post to add the Easter Egg info.]

photoactive [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Can someone good at that sort of thing read through the XML to find the easter eggs?

The new themes – City Scape! lovely – have made me want to use the personalised home page again (I'd given it up). If only the modules loaded faster. But now it does seem properly personalised, and more fun.

Anyway, I've also added new tabs again, and experimented with the automatic population feature. It works very nicely for "Music" and "Video". One question: if you automatically populate a "Video" tab you get a long unlabelled module at the top of the page, across all three columns, a row of thumbnail videos. It's really very nice. But does anyone know what it is, and how to get it to appear anywhere else?

http://img252.imageshack.us/my.php?image=videotabpp7.png

Sander [PersonRank 4]

17 years ago #

> One question: if you automatically populate a "Video" tab you get a long unlabelled module at the top of the page, across all three columns, a row of thumbnail videos. It's really very nice. But does anyone know what it is, and how to get it to appear anywhere else?

There is a module with the suggestive name 'video bar'. Unfortunately for you, there aren't any settings to change the position of it.

bradsucks [PersonRank 1]

17 years ago #

Very nice. I was moaning yesterday about how ugly the Google IG page was. Now if they'd add new post tracking and better excerpts I'd probably come back from Netvibes.

Brinke Guthrie [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

like it a lot.

Brinke Guthrie [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

but the bus stop still shows daylight and it's quite dark here. all others appear to be dark. for now. PS I thought those were the characters in 'South Park' initially...LOL

/pd [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

ok once a theme is selected..how do I get rid of the theme table.. its kinda shoved all my other stuff down.. I want to choose a theme and that it. Once saved I want the theme table to dissapper!!.

photoactive [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

It disappears for me . . . Did you click "save" and "OK"?

/pd [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

something freaky is happened on my theme.. it initally it saved , but the theme table did not move to the next question (location).. after a closing out and getting back in ..it behavoured ok..!!

Dave B [PersonRank 2]

17 years ago #

Very nice. I like some of the options available, but it will be interesting to see if they add to this in the future, or open it up for others to develop themes as well.

If they keep making a some homepage improvements, I might actually start using it.

JennyPenny [PersonRank 6]

17 years ago #

"I think I can spot Larry Page and Sergey Brin, but who are the others?"

LOL I also see Larry and Sergey in the Bus Stop theme.

I think the one on the far left is Eric Schmidt and the grandma is Marissa Mayer. LOL Who's the guy standing next to her?!

When does it get windy at the Bus Stop? Looks like Sergey wears a wig and loses it when it gets windy.

JennyPenny [PersonRank 6]

17 years ago #

... Oh! I think the tall guy standing next to Marissa Mayer is Matt Cutts. LOL

http://headshave.baldlygo.com/images/mattCutts.jpg

I don't know who made the above photo.

GuillaumeB [PersonRank 9]

17 years ago #

Can this be push to Gmail ina little while? I hope so.
My fav is Sweet Dreams

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

I can't pinpoint it but something on that photo doesn't look right. Maybe his glasses?

Sander [PersonRank 4]

17 years ago #

I guess the white font doesn't do here :)

http://spkersten2.googlepages.com/white-font.JPG

Harper Reed [PersonRank 1]

17 years ago #

I was really bored this morning, so i grabbed all the different times for the different themes and placed them here:
http://demon.dopeman.org/googlethemes/
or here is an image:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/natatwo/428184732/

JennyPenny [PersonRank 6]

17 years ago #

Well, Matt Cutts isn't bald to my knowledge, but he is in the above photo. I think someone photoshopped his head to make him look like he's bald. LOL His glasses look ok to me.

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Nice job Harper! I updated the post again.

Niraj Sanghvi [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

It looks like it's actually layering images...on the winterscape theme, looking at the background image you can only see the sun and the snowman:

http://www.google.com/ig/images/skins/winterscape/10am/header_bg.gif

Colin Colehour [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

I still don't see an Add theme button on my account. I'm 20 minutes from Google HQ, you would figure they would push the feature out locally first.

Mrrix32 [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Although I don't get it on .co.uk yet, The themes do change according to your post code if your in the UK :-)
(so it should work for other countries as well)

Stephen Tordoff [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Does "Tea House" remind anyone else of FireFox?

David Hetfield [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

yeah!!!
i thought of it too!!
hehe...

anyhow,
cool feature!

Michael Schaap [PersonRank 3]

17 years ago #

Well, I selected "Beach" and told it I'm in "Amsterdam, The Netherlands" (which is the closest to "city and state or zipcode" I could think of), but it doesn't get the times right. It seems to be 2 hours behind or so. (It's ten past nine, and the sun has just set on the ‘beach’, while IRL it set at just before seven.)
I don't know if it's supposed to do something with the weather, but the ‘beach’ has been sunny all day, which doesn't match the view outside my window at all. ;-)

Mrrix32 [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Beach doesn't seem to change due to the weather.
and Bus Stop doesn't seem to change due to the time.
Haven't checked any others fully yet.

photoactive [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

It looks as though they do either the weather or the time of day. (It would be nice if some did both!) I'm really amazed by how nice they are, especially City Scape, my favourite; it will certainly have me using IG again.

By the way, it'd be good if they said who the themes authors were.

Brinke Guthrie [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

for me, the city scape one doesnt show the 'google' logo...all others do.

Mrrix32 [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

<<the city scape one doesnt show the 'google' logo>>

It's there on mine (night time) maybe it's certain times of the day :-/

Brinke Guthrie [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

i think it would be great to include some actual depictions of scenes..such as, GGB for SF...or Eiffel Twr for Paris..the HOLLYWOOD sign for LA..etc.

JennyPenny [PersonRank 6]

17 years ago #

You can tell Google about the themes you want to see here: http://groups.google.com/group/Google_Web_Search_Help-Personalizing/topics

(Google! When do we get to personalize Gmail? I really don't like the blue and the gray.)

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

OK, I can now conclude that it doesn't understand my German location. It ought to be night now, but the bus stop is in full day light...

Tony Ruscoe [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Philipp, according to the XML files, the Bus Stop is a weather skin rather than a time skin.

BTW, I've found some of the easter eggs... :-)

http://ruscoe.net/blog/2007/03/google-personalized-homepage-easter.asp

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

(Cool, updated the post once more.)

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Ah OK, the beach does show night now.

Brinke Guthrie [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

It's 8:40pm PT. I bring the sweet dreams page up..it shows night.
I refresh the page...or go to another tab.....I get daytime.

example:
first open the home page, I see this:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v247/brinkeguthrie/untitled1-1.jpg

go to another tab;
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v247/brinkeguthrie/untitled2-3.jpg

EDIT
So now it's 9:24pt..I switch to the Beach theme, my favorite- and it stays night all the time. refresh, different tabs, etc. hmmmmm.

EDIT II
The Bus Stop still shows daylight..and the City Scape still has no Google logo. Still a few bugs in this, but I like it.

NateDawg [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

One of the first things that I thought when I saw the new themes was that this would be the perfect hook to get my wife interested into the Google IG page. Wouldn't you know it, it worked. My wife is totally addicted to the personal homepage now and is adding gadget left and right. This was something I was interested to see if Google could pull of right. My impressions of the Yahoo and MSN pages was that they were so cluttered and to me unpersonable, that I never really enjoyed them. I really think that Google engineered a great medium. My hat off to Google, Google IG is my homepage one again... :D

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

If they get rid of the two-second-delay I'll ponder switching to google.com/ig. All I have is a single iframe-inclusion, so that shouldn't delay the whole page (in theory)...

Saibot [PersonRank 1]

17 years ago #

Can one of the CSS gurus out there create some bookmarklets that will invoke the easter eggs on demand? 3:14am is either too late or too early for this body.

Sohil [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Wov really cool. I read an article somewhere where the author was complaining on how Google IG is too plain and Voila!

Tony Ruscoe [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Saibot, here's how you can do it without using any Greasemonkey scripts or extensions...

Just go to your Google Personalized Homepage and enter one of these into your address bar – including the "javascript:" – which will change your page to use the easter egg stylesheets:

For Beach:

javascript:void(document.getElementById("ext_css").href=
"/ig/skins/beach/beach_3.14am.css");

For City Scape:

javascript:void(document.getElementById("ext_css").href=
"/ig/skins/cityscape/cityscape_3.14am.css");

For Sweet Dreams:

javascript:void(document.getElementById("ext_css").href=
"/ig/skins/sweetdreams/sweetdreams_3.14am.css");

For Tea House:

javascript:void(document.getElementById("ext_css").href=
"/ig/skins/teahouse/teahouse_3.14am.css");

For Seasonal Scape:

javascript:void(document.getElementById("ext_css").href=
"/ig/skins/winterscape/winterscape_3.14am.css");

(Remove the line breaks, of course.)

Does that work for you?

David Hetfield [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

yes tony :)

thanks

A Concerned Googlite [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

In the bus stop theme...WHERE IS THE HOT CHICK???? I see an old guy and woman, two white guys, a black guy, and a little girl. Where is the demographic representing young to middle age women???? wtf google...W.T.F.

Brinke Guthrie [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

at 244pm PT, the page now comes up as night. i refresh it, it shows day. whateverrrrrrr.

Tony Ruscoe [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Brinke, do you have some weird caching setting on your browser? You always seem to have problems that *could* be caused by some over-zealous browser cache or proxy server...

Brinke Guthrie [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

well, i dont know; what do you suggest i look for? like where it says 'temporary files amount of disc space alloted – it says 762 Mb; and check for newer versions of stored pages every time.

It does this (showing night during the day, etc) in IE6 and also the latest version of FF.

here's the version of cityscape- no logo;
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v247/brinkeguthrie/untitled-15.jpg

Search-Engines-Web.com [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Boy, what a Coincidence – Yahoo launches THIS within two days of Google launching that

http://widgets.yahoo.com/

Brinke Guthrie [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

now that is a killer app. WAY more cool than G's sidebar. Kudos to Y on this one.

Peter [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

dudes – i _finally_ got my themes. they keep disappearing every time i switch tabs, etc., but i get to see them occasionally. sweet!

Brinke Guthrie [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Mine still shows night during the day..then I refresh, and it's daytime. Close the browser..open again, it shows night. Others agree; a post from Google Groups says:

"I'm having the same problem. I beleive it is wide spread. It has
something to do with the browser cache. It isn't something that should
be cached and will probably be fixed soon. Hopefully!"

Look at THIS one; no scene at all except..an orange grove?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v247/brinkeguthrie/untitled-16.jpg

David Hetfield [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

[put at-character here] Brinke,
how did you get this theme?

Tue Abrahamsen [PersonRank 7]

17 years ago #

I still don't see anything at all. Neither on the danish IG, or on the english one. I don't get it at home either.

I feel at bit left out :(

Brinke Guthrie [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

I got that screenshot by just refreshing the tea house scene a few times- it showed as that.

Tony Ruscoe [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Brinke, it looks like you're just seeing the background image tiled:

http://www.google.com/ig/images/skins/teahouse/6pm/header_tile.jpg

Google use these tiled backgrounds with additional image overlays:

http://www.google.com/ig/images/skins/teahouse/6pm/header_bg.jpg

James Xuan [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

I see brinkies one too labeled Fp31.Under Classic(the. is included in he name), brinkie, is that what its called on your account?

Brinke Guthrie [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

it's just called Tea House. right now at 214p PT, it shows as NIGHTTIME.

Brigid Kemp [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

Considering I live in a small city, between two lakes and lots of beaches, I chose the Beaches theme. With a sun positioned appropriately in the sky, according to the time of day. My one issue is that I have to Refresh everytime I open my browser (Firefox), to bring the sun to match the correct time (Western Canada/BC). So, the theme is obviously coming from an Eastern time zone.

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