Google’s homepage background. The vuvuzela of the browser?

Date Posted - 14 Jun 2010 | Posted By - admin | Comments 2

When it comes to annoyance, surely nothing can rank with the incessant drone of the vuvuzelas that can be heard throughout the current World Cup tournament.

google-home-page-backgroundBut wait, what’s that? And from one of the more surprising places too.

Google has managed to clutter up their impressively (not to mention legendary) minimalist interface with a collection of ghastly full-screen images.

Officially, a Google blog post said: ‘We’re introducing a new feature that brings a whole new level of personalisation to Google by letting you add a favorite photo or image to the background of the Google homepage.’

But why?

bing-home-page-backgroundThe reason for adding this functionality isn’t clear. Is it possible that Microsoft’s Bing might be making in-roads into Google’s market share through their earlier introduction of background pictures that adds both interest and extra appeal?

Strangely, this approach seems to work extremely well for Bing, certainly as much as it flies in the face of all that Google’s iconic interface is meant to represent… simplistic search, nothing more, nothing less.

Or has it anything to do with the timing of the deployment of the feature? The day after Google launched its latest search indexing system, Caffeine.

A small amount of research would undoubtedly provide something close to the answer to these questions, but mercifully, just as there’s a volume button on the TV to reduce the non-stop, mosquito-like buzz of the vuvezela, there’s also a disable function within Google’s page too.

Personally, I can live very happily without either.

What do you think of Google’s background image option?

Comments 2 Leave a comment

  1. I agree. Do not like the new feature at all. Get’s in the way and is distracting in the face of a quick search.

    I now stay logged into my iGoogle account which doesn’t show the image.

    Comment by - Craig Killick Date Posted - June 14, 2010

  2. Pingback Tweets that mention Google’s homepage background. The vuvuzela of the browser? | The Escape - Design & Web Agency -- Topsy.com

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