I hate to break the "lyrical" mood apparently introduced by the previous post (and thank you, Natalya, for yor kind words!), but I just have to vent my latest grievance agaist Google.
A few minutes ago, literally in the middle of the night, I noticed that the Google results display was somehow different to what I was used to. There was a side bar on the left side of the screen, that I've never seen before.
There wasn't much to it, even though the first line said, cryptically, "everything" and just underneath it, "more".
(Yes: first "everything", and then you get even "more" than everything... I wonder, do the Google people - maybe we should call them "goople" - ever realise the unintended ironies of their logically challenged onscreen lingo?)
The rest were the usual options, the ones you are used to seeing just below the search box, plus "more search options".
At first I thought I had inadvertently clicked on a wrong button, so I tried to click it back to the standard view.
It didn't work.
So I turned to - who else? - Google and searched for the origins of this silent novelty and, more to the point, for ways to make it disappear.
I found all of it here.
According to this article, "Google is quietly conducting an experiment where the search options side-bar is automatically opened every time search results is shown. In current Google search results interface, which in fact has already been enhanced with the search options, the sidebar opens the left only when clicked."
Yes, well, I don't like "quiet experiments", especially not at the expense of my wits and time (= the time I have to spend searching for disabling techniques instead of doing things I enjoy.)
And, rather typically, "unfortunately, Google does not provide a single switch or option that can turn off and disable the always-on sidebar layout on its search results page".
But they are using cookies to determine whether you'll keep it or switch it off.
(Guess what my cookies told them?)
So, if you want to get rid of it permanently, you have to delete the cookies related to Google.
FIREFOX users:
Go to Tools -> Options -> Privacy tab. Click on remove individual cookies link. Expand the Google domain which display the new “always-on” sidebar (such as google.com), highlight the cookie named PREF and click on Remove Cookie button to delete the cookie.
OR go to Tools -> Clear Recent History. Choose Everything, and then Cookies, then press Clear Now button.
INTERNET EXPLORER users:
First, go download Flock or Firefox or Opera or even Chrome and set it to be your default browser - then we can talk... :)
I like novelties. I cherish and welcome (and even suggest) them - provided they are useful or at least amusing.
This one is neither.
And to me, the addition of "more search options" - all of which are really just dumbed down search practices that any user with some experience and/or logical abilities would be performing by themselves - confirms my suspicions that Google is not only accepting the global "dumbing down" of internet audiences but is also actively encouraging it.
I am not a conspiracy fun; there is no sinister design behind it (pun originally unitended) - unless you consider Google's harnessing the power of the growing functional illiteracy to generate ever more money for them sinister.
I do.
UPDATE:
I am sorry to report that the solutions presented above do NOT work in any of the browsers we use. After every restart, the cookies are reinstalled as soon as you hit the WWW. So much for "silent" experiment...
I'll continue to search for a solution.
And if you have one, do let us know.
ANOTHER UPDATE:
Apparently, the "Always on" is now to be - always on. Permanent.
If you dislike it, there is a petition you can sign and share.
And you can do what we've done: go off Google.
There are other options.
This is one:
And this is another one (unlimited):
And of course, there is the (ever increasingly attractive-looking) Bing:
I know this much: shrugging is NOT an option for us here.
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