Thoughts on Google Side UI

Last week I finally experienced the experimental Google user interface (UI) that has the links to other databases displayed on the left side instead of along the top of the search box. Take a look at the first screenshot that shows the top of a regular results page. It includes links to Images, Maps, News, Groups, and more (which just links straight to the More Google Products page instead of being an Ajax pop-up). Note that Groups is still listed instead of the new default of Video. Also, there is no "Web" link, which since we are already in the Web database, makes sense.

What I had not realized from the other screen shots I've seen (various permutations like ones from Jan.,  March, and another from Sept.), is that in the version I see, when you scroll down to the bottom, there are another set of links. As seen in the screenshot below, the Video, Books, and Froogle databases have been added.

I should note that on some searches, the top links would include Froogle and/or Books on some of my tests. Google has been playing around with this UI change since at least last December, so it will be interesting to see if they do end up adopting some variation of it.