Google Demotes Directory in New Look

After experimenting for several months, Google has launched its new look today. While the appearance is not too different, one significant change is the removal of the Directory tab and the addition of the Froogle shopping tab. Google's directory is still available, but it is much more difficult to get to. Froogle is still in beta, but now it is being emphasized much more. Other changes include the removal of the "tab" look (which makes the links to other Google databases a bit less obvious), the removal of the color background on the side ads, making less of the ads clickable, and putting the search query, definition, and count on the right of the header bar. Google News now includes some thumbshot images in the search results (something AltaVista had done a few years ago).

Two other new Google Labs initiatives are the Google Personalized Web Search and Google Web Alerts. The Personalized Web Search lets users choose certain preference and then use a slider to re-rank their results based on those preferences (but not one at a time). The Web Alerts offer email alerts about new search results. These are run either once per day or once per week.