A Google code bug has bought to an end, the use of a picture as a backdrop to the Google search page only 24 hours after it emerged. Now users are calling for it to be banned forever.
Google decided to experiment by putting a picture on its front page similar to what Microsoft does with their Bing search engine – whether you wanted on or not. Then they decided to add a World Cup doodle – which looked awful with the background image.
In a blogpost posted to explain the use of the image, Google executive Marissa Mayer, the head of search products and user experience said “Last week, we launched the ability to set an image of users’ choosing as the background for the Google homepage. Today, we ran a special ‘doodle’ that showcased this functionality by featuring a series of images as the background for our homepage. We had planned to run an explanation of the showcase alongside it – in the form of a link on our homepage. Due to a bug, the explanatory link did not appear for most users. As a result, many people thought we had permanently changed our homepage, so we decided to stop today’s series early. We appreciate your feedback and patience as we experiment and iterate.
Judging by the number (and negative attitude) of the comments that we saw on our own post, and the fact that for some time “remove google background image” was appearing on Google Trends, this looks like an experiment that just went wrong”.
Now users including myself are pleading with Google never do it again.
