Google maximizes minimalist homepage madness
Rainmen test one word search site
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Google has taken its Rainman-like minimalist-homepage obsession to new extremes, testing a page that includes nothing but the Google name and an empty search box. And a very small trademark symbol. It looks like this:
But there's, well, more. It is no doubt with great pain that when you mouse over this bare-bones test page, Google slots in all sorts of other bits:
But you'll notice that at least in some cases, even the mouse-over sidesteps the oh-so-familiar "Google Search" and "I'm Feeling Lucky" buttons that typically turn up below the search box.
You too can experience Google's pathological minimalism by visiting the google.com homepage, typing the following script into your address bar, and hitting the reload button:
javascript:void(document.cookie="PREF=ID=abac7a90f5a3784b:LD=en: NR=10:TM=1254990196:LM=1254990236:S=uB6F4jDnMP_DuxtT;path=/; domain=.google.com");
You may notice that your incarnation of the test includes the "Google Search" and "I'm Feeling Lucky" buttons. But unless you're a numerophilic compulsive along the lines of Googirl Marissa Meyer, you should have no problem stomaching those five extra words.
Famously, Meyer takes great pride in the fact that the current Google homepage includes only 28. Except when it doesn't. ®
Bootnote
A tip of the hat to TechCrunch and Google Blogoscoped. ®
COMMENTS
@MonkeyBot
"Talking is kind of cumbersome.
Is there any way this could just be plugged in to my brain?"
You need the other Firefox for that - can you think in Russian?
Smaller still
For a truly minimal search engine, do the following:
enter http://www.google.com/search?q=
in your browser address bar, followed by your search terms separated by "+" (plus sign).
For example:
http://www.google.com/search?q=atlanta+braves+lose+again
Once you are familiar with it, you can type it almost as quickly as you can locate your Google bookmark.
The reason that I do this is that there isn't any reason for Google to load tons of CSS and Java to display a search box and their logo.
Works in FF
but you need to press refresh rather than go or enter with the js in the address bar
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