Flour Power

Google seems to be testing a new interface for its homepage. I just spotted it on Google UK, and only when logged in and using Chrome. Also, it’s only available for some users, as usual with these kinds of experiments. This is what it looks like:

The content is no longer centered, but instead aligned to the left, and the left sidebar is styled differently, with different colors and icons. The header and search box have a grey background that clearly separates them from the search results. As far as these are concerned, the only visible change seems to be that the site URL appears right under the search result link, instead of after the site blurb.

Here’s the old interface, for comparison:

Note that the new-ish black menu bar is already on both versions.

Forget about all the other announcements from Google in their I/O conference. All that matters is the announcement that Angry Birds finally made its way to Google Chrome.

It’s now available in the Chrome Web Store with 70 free levels. Chrome also gets some exclusive content: there’s 7 levels part of a so-called “Chrome Dimension”. This web version of Angry Birds will also soon support the new in-app payments system, so new (paid) content will probably make its way to this Chrome version.

As if I didn’t have enough time-wasters already…

In today’s xkcd comic, Randall Munroe explores the future using Google’s top search results for queries like “by the year <year>”, “in the year <year>” and “in year <year>, * will”. It’s a nice and easy way to have a quick snapshot of what is being written around the web about the future.

This is not the first time Randall has used Google search results as the basis of his comics. Also worth checking are Google results for various phrases, frequency of strip versions of various games, and the trochee chart.

The image above is part of the satellite imagery that Google recently released of the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG) – commonly known as The Boneyard. It’s a collection of over 4,000 retired aircraft including nearly every plane the US armed forces have flown since World War II.

Get more info at BBC News, or just explore the whole thing in Google Maps.

(via Gizmodo)

Thanks to @grealish.