Google preferences: no more

Wed Sep 02 00:00:00 IST 2009, by Abhishek Mehta

Do not worry "preferences" are not dead. Google has continued its march towards improvement and adding more features to its search page. In this process Google has renamed its "preferences" to "Search settings". This change started to appear from last few days and to add to the discomfort of daily users the positioning has also changed . First image on the top shows the old location and the second image shows the new location. If this change discomforts you then here is a respite: Title of "Search settings" page and headings are still named Preferences.

If a web searcher is logged in while using Google then  "Search settings" appear as a typical Google drop down under a menu named "Settings" along with "account settings" . See the image:

"Search Settings" has no added extra feature for now but its renaming certainly signals the changes coming in the future. Currently "Search Settings" have the same features as they were under preferences (not logged in)

Verdict:

If a change brings initial discomfort but is of longer-term benefit then it should be welcomed. Google Search pages have reputation of simple, cleaner and meaner for web searchers. But recent years with the addition of "Query Suggestion", "Show Options", "Search Wiki" and of course the advertisements the page looks more in disarray. High value "Query Suggestion" lying at the bottom of search page and expansion of "Show Options" to appear as left hand menu bar is not as per the "Google" strategy of keeping the result page cleaner. This is a positive step towards the better organization of the result page. Now all the features, which modify the displayed results, are on the result page and all others, which are related to personalization, have moved into top menu.

Posted at 12:00AM Sep 02, 2009 by ABhi in Trends  |  Comments[0]