I was wondering the same thing - but thought it was me.
I have iGoogle as my homepage and sometimes, after entering something in the search field, it’ll take me to the generic Google page (with the search field blank).
Doesn’t seem to be happening to me in Firefox 8.0.
I’m not positive that I am doing the same thing as you, though.
Go to www.google.com
Type in a search (I typed in google changes news) hit enter
Web search results turn up (About 208,000,000 results (0.18 seconds) )
Click on News
News search results turn up (About 3,400 results (0.20 seconds) )
Click on Everything
It goes back to the same web results as before.
This is the same result I’m seeing. Apparently Google intends that you click the links on the sidebar menu, not the top banner, to preserve search terms. Not sure if this is new behavior, as I’ve never used the top banner in that way before.
Never noticed the buttons on the left. I always use the ones at the top.
You’re correct. The button on the left side does work.
Why did they ruin the ones at the top?
I also hate :mad: the auto screen search feature they started a few months ago.
Search Giffords - you see Gabrielle in some of the hits
start to type Gabrielle into the search box. The whole stinking screen changes. :mad: It’s auto searching on a G. Then a Ga Then Gab
The entire reason for the first search was to see how to spell Gabrielle. By wiping it off the screen I’m screwed. Once again I have to ctrl-c to copy and then paste.
I just hate Google these days. They are ruining it.
At the risk of sounding like a Google apologist, you can turn this behavior off. Click the gear icon in the upper right, scroll down to “Google Instant” and select “Do not use Google Instant.” This won’t prevent the search box from suggesting terms as you type, but it will prevent the search results from changing your whole stinking screen.
Is there any way to make it so Google shows the links to the cached pages when you have javascript off? It used to, but now they are invisible for some reason.
I prefer to have flash/java/javascript/etc off as much as possible.
Looks like it is javascript-dependent, Carmady; they recently moved the links to the cached pages to the preview that opens up on the right side of the page when you hover your mouse over the >> indicator that appears to the right of each search result. I just tried to get it with javascript turned off, and it didn’t load the preview at all.
For all the reasons mentioned above in addition to loss of the + functionality and moving the “advanced search” to the bottom of the page (or maybe just eliminating it from the top), coupled with the location specific results, I am rapidly losing my faith in Google results. I feel that a greater and greater extent of my search results are content that Google is pushing to me, rather than results of my search terms.
Well, BING is much worse, IMO! Got that on my phone and I ALWAYS put google in the search box and go from there. They’ll get it straightened out eventually. I’m thinking they’re “technology drunk” and are racing ahead faster than they need to.
This turns off all the instant/completion behavior.
I wonder if someone has created a “classic” Google page out there that turns off the crap and gives the old look and feel, at least for the home page. (E.g., hiding the advanced search link under the “tool” icon.) Hate that whole black bar. It’s the opposite of what Google is supposed to be. Form is winning over function at Google. And it’s bad form, not even good form.
Wow! Someone who agrees with me about that black bar! It doesn’t in any way go with Google’s aesthetic. They try to defend it by showing the layout changes over the years, but one thing you will notice is that the color scheme never included black.
It seems like such a niggly detail, but it bugs me.
I like the black bar, but only because I have a black theme for my browser and it matches with that. Possibly it should be customisable so it will look right for everybody.
