Search giant Google has brought about a number of changes to the design of its iconic homepage.
The Google logo has been reworked to feature flatter lettering and the menu bar has been replaced with a streamlined links section.
A spokesperson at the company said more changes would be introduced across its range of products. At present, not all of the site’s users can see the redesigned homepage.
One analyst at tech consultancy firm Forrester said:
“This is the season for consumer tech updates and whether you sell a product or it’s free everyone wants to look fresh ahead of the Christmas shopping season.
“What they are doing is actually pretty subtle and that’s because these software companies depend on user loyalty – they don’t want to do anything that would alienate their customers.”
The redesign – which follows closely in the wake of web design changes made by Microsoft to Bing, and Yahoo to its own logo – is the first change of its kind to be made by Google since 2010.
While a blog post confirmed that the search giant plans to streamline users’ experiences with its services, an analyst from Gartner, a tech advisory firm, suggested that the simplified interface might actually make it harder for some users to find the Google service they are looking for.
Following the redesign, users now reveal other products – such as the Play Store app for Android or YouTube videos – by clicking a small grid icon.
The Google search homepage is now the most visited website in the world. According to figures, around 1.8 trillion searches were made through the search engine in 2012.
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