End of an era: Google no longer underlining hyperlinks in search
Google introduced a change to its search engine this week that removes one of the design elements it still carried from the ‘90s: underlined hyperlinks.
To give Google Search a cleaner look, the Mountain View, Calif., tech giant has increased the font size of result titles, evened out line heights, and most importantly, removed the underlines.
“This improves readability and creates an overall cleaner look,” said Jon Wiley, lead designer for Google Search, in a Google+ post.
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The new look was introduced as a way to make the Web version of Google Search resemble the underline-free look introduced last year in mobile versions of the service.
User opinion on the design change is split. Some like no underlines, saying it gives a cleaner look to search results, while others already miss the retro look.
Here are a few users who don’t like the change:
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO - I will miss the blue underline in links :( https://t.co/SEri2rq89X— Dave Mora (@DaveMora) March 13, 2014
Not a fan of the new “underline less” Google results. I find it hard to scan the page. maybe that’s the plan... click ads on top?— Michael Anderson (@badgerdigital) March 12, 2014
On the 25th anniversary of the World Wide Web, I lament that a {text-underline: none} is the new norm. I’m looking at you, Google.— Jason Tan (@jt2k) March 12, 2014
I hate the new Google search result style... give me my underline back!— nitriques (@nitriques) March 11, 2014
And here are a few users who welcome the change:
So, Google finally removed the underline from URLs in search results. Took them a while. #CleanUI— Milos Jovanovik (@ymilosy) March 11, 2014
#google has removed the underline from its search results. Now that looks much better #minimalism #WebDesign https://t.co/eTJiaIM2hM— Adrian Robson (@adrianjrobson) March 12, 2014
Yay, google search results links dropped the underline. #cleaner pic.twitter.com/GGwKCU129D— Jake Trent (@jaketrent) March 12, 2014
Google has removed underline from search results title and has apparently morphed the font a little and some line height. Looks neat.— Santhosh (@Gigacore) March 12, 2014
What do you think? Are you a fan of the underlines or are you glad they’re gone?
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