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Google lets us wallpaper the Search page - I set mine to a Bing screenshot
Last month, we had some fun with Google's explanation of their recent redesign of search results, but it looks like Google isn't quite done yet with not copying Bing.
In their quest to make their search engine sexier and more appealing to the fickle masses, Google's now begun to let users add a background image of their choosing to the main search landing page. Is this cool? Yes. Is it copying Bing? We'll let you decide, but note that the picture above is a screenshot of Bing's landing page uploaded to Picasa and set as my Google Search background image. Google's suggestion that it only looks vaguely familiar only makes it funnier. (Click image for full size.)
And that's where the militant commenters will start saying that it's not copying, since Google lets the users pick their own backgrounds, while Bing just force-feeds fake Feng Shui. As much as I'm tempted to agree with them, I end up remembering the kids in school who would copy your answer in a test, and then expand on it and make it even better than yours. You know the type.
Whether it's obvious copying or not isn't all that important anyway. It's actually a pretty nice little feature; you can choose any image you want so long as it's at least 800x600 in size, and you simply pick from whatever's sitting in your Picasa account. Then, whenever you hit up Google's landing page, the image fades into opacity in the background so it doesn't slow down your searching.
They're still rolling the feature out at the moment, and somewhat slowly at that, so you may not see the option to add a background image for a few days.
Comments
13
Subscribe to commentsLee MathewsJun 2nd 2010 10:34PM
Ramirez! Destroy that screencap with your throwing knife!
Android underlingJun 2nd 2010 11:09PM
This is awesome. I wish Bing allowed you to do this too. I hate the daily pictures on Bing. I like my homepage to compliment my desktop, so when Bing slaps on some random picture I dont like, it really ruins the experience.
And yes I know I am overreacting.
SierraJun 4th 2010 11:09AM
I love the comment man, "ruins the experience" is just hilarious.
I appreciate the "zen" of your statement. I too could care less if I find what I'm searching for, as long as the experience is good so what? If my search background matches my desktop then the cosmic forces of nature have aligned and the universe is truly harmonious I really don't need good results. My "experience" is good regardless of results. Om Mani Padme Hum.
Seriously folks, if you thin that Windows or Mac's or a phone is an "experience" you need to put down the gadgets and go outside once ina while. Just Sayin...
Ben CarlsonJun 2nd 2010 11:24PM
How will they handle the Google doodle logos?
Matthew RogersJun 3rd 2010 12:34AM
That's a good question. The logo goes plain white (which is actually pretty nice), but I guess there's a chance that anybody using this may not ever see the doodles again.
Matthew RogersJun 5th 2010 11:20PM
And as it turns out, it looks like they thought of that too. A little multi-color signifier floats to the right of the logo when there's a doodle for the day :)
TheGMJun 2nd 2010 11:52PM
I think I'll stick with plain white.
minibarJun 3rd 2010 1:42AM
not trying to steal your thunder, but bing has rarely appealed to me. bing features are alright, but i'd rather have bing with a google background.
EddieJun 3rd 2010 5:51AM
Ha! The title and screen cap had me laughing.
Jorge PereiraJun 3rd 2010 10:26PM
C'mon, drop it already. If Google is copying Bing which in turn copies Google... who cares? :)
JayJun 12th 2010 11:55AM
They are both copying ask and dogpile
NathanJun 29th 2010 2:33PM
I was disappointed that Google did that. It almost made me think that they felt threatened by Bing which they shouldn't. Their browser is taking over the market and they have the most used search engine. They have nothing to fear from Microsoft. Microsoft should fear Google.
At the beginning of this month one of my writers wrote a article titled "Google’s Worst Nightmare or Just Another Search Engine". You should check it out http://www.nathanneil.com/news/2010/june/google-bing.html
LotteJul 6th 2010 11:54AM
You have to laugh at Microsoft's response “How intriguing to see friends at Google borrowing the Bing homepage #photography idea". I've lost count of the number of Microsoft hosted seminars that I've been to and heard them rave about the new technology that has been invented... when in reality it's a load of codswollop (sp!?).
Bing wasn't exactly a pioneer for "wallpaper" now was it!? "Wallpaper" has been around for many many years and I'm not even sure if Microsoft Windows was the first OS to have that feature.
As for search engines, maybe some of you remember a fairly significant case a number of years ago where Google tried to sue the one-man web development company that created Groovle. Now that was a site which cleverly utilised Google's search engine but added wallpaper functionality. It hit the news because the monolithic Google lost on laughable "We are SKYNET" grounds.
But, if you take that into account, it was Google that indirectly had background wallpaper on their search engine. Yet again Microsoft have stepped in with their big feet claiming they invented it. Yep, right-o.
Moving on further than the Microsoft/Google squabbling, I don't think either Bing or Google are that innovative these days with their search engines. In my opinion the beauty of Google is the simplicity of it, and more importantly the efficiency of it. I'm an advocate for the small fry websites that excel in artistic merit as opposed to financial clout. Take the website Gazoomy (http://www.gazoomy.com) for example which lets you set background wallpaper for Google search. It features a dragable searchbar that seemlessly integrates with the background with a slight translucency effect. The image spans both the search and results pages (unlike Google). The images automatically resize depending on your resolution. The perks go on and on... if the big boys wish to be innovative then they need to look at the small fry which are generally better.