Try out Google's new interface

by Jordan Running Mar 24th 2006

Awhile back I posted about the new search results interface Google was supposedly testing. I can definitely confirm that today. This blog post describes how to set a new cookie in Firefox that will force Google to display the new results page for you. Since the instructions are a little off (and took me some fiddling to make them to work), here's my version:

Update: In the comments reader Whosawhatsis has posted an easier way to accomplish the same thing without installing any extensions. Try that first.

Download and install the Add N Edit Cookies extension. Restart Firefox.
Run the extension by going to Tools > Cookie Editor.
Type "google" into the box at the top and click "Filter/Refresh". Scroll through the list and look for a cookie called "PREF" (Disclaimer: I don't know what this cookie is really for, so modify it at your own risk!).
1. If it exists, double-click on it and change the "Content" field to the following (remove the line break first):
  
  ID=fb7740f107311e46:TM=1142683332:
  LM=1142683332:S=fNSw6ljXTzvL3dWu
2. If it does not exist, you must create it. Click on Add. Enter PREF for the Name and the bold string above for Content. Set the Domain to .google.com and / for the Path. Set the expiration date to whatever you want--pick "Expire at end of session" if you only want to see the "new" Google until the next time you launch Firefox. Otherwise set a date far in the future.
Click Save and then close out of the Cookie Editor. The next time you search Google you should see the new search results page. If you get sick of it, you can just delete to cookie and it'll go away.

Tags: cookies, design, firefox, google, interface

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Whosawhatsis said 4:18PM on 3-24-2006

Or just paste this into your address bar while on any google page, hit enter to run the script and reload.

javascript:document.cookie="PREF=ID=fb7740f107311e46:TM=1142683332:LM=1142683332:S=fNSw6ljXTzvL3dWu;path=/;domain=.google.com"

This will set the cookie for this session only, but it can be modified to set the expiration for whenever you want.

Jordan Running said 4:19PM on 3-24-2006

Great tip, Whosawhatsis. I've added a mention to it in the original post.

Whosawhatsis said 4:23PM on 3-24-2006

Firefox doesn't seem to like that one, but it works with this:

javascript:alert(document.cookie="PREF=ID=fb7740f107311e46:TM=1142683332:LM=1142683332:S=fNSw6ljXTzvL3dWu;path=/;domain=.google.com")

Also, I should mention that this script should work in any browser and does not require a plugin. Why must people make things so difficult?

5m0k3 said 4:45PM on 3-24-2006

You can also view a screenshot of a possible drop-down menu that may be in the works, here: http://digg.com/design/New_Google_Interface:_Drop-down_Menu

Whosawhatsis said 5:35PM on 3-24-2006

One more note, it looks like if you modify other preferences (for instance, by switching to personalized home) while this is active, it will make the preference stick so that it won't switch back automatically for over 30 years. If you want to get rid of if, you can run the script again and then close your browser immediately. This will make the cookie a session cookie again, so that closing the browser causes it to expire.

derek said 4:05PM on 3-25-2006

this doesn't seem to work for me beyond the google homepage. once i view results the default google page is loaded.

matt said 6:40PM on 3-25-2006

cool

Whosawhatsis said 7:25PM on 3-25-2006

This hit digg and people started complaining that it didn't work for google in other countries (google.co.uk, for example), so here's a universal version:

javascript:alert(document.cookie="PREF=ID=fb7740f107311e46:TM=1142683332:LM=1142683332:S=fNSw6ljXTzvL3dWu;path=/;domain=."+location.href.split('/')[2].substr(location.href.split('/')[2].indexOf('google')));

Kevin said 8:05PM on 3-25-2006

Heh, I've already been getting the new interface.

Ken said 8:16PM on 3-25-2006

Does it works with Opera Browser?

ylon said 9:13PM on 3-25-2006

The following worked perfectly in Safari, thanks!

javascript:document.cookie="PREF=ID=fb7740f107311e46:TM=1142683332:LM=1142683332:S=fNSw6ljXTzvL3dWu;path=/;domain=.google.com"

Search Engines Web said 10:12PM on 3-25-2006

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=EGLC,EGLC:2006-05,EGLC:en&q=

this works in IE - just save it to the favorites

JS said 11:58PM on 3-25-2006

I've seen that interface come up while doing regular searches. Every now and then I see that layout instead of the normal one. It's rather distracting. I hit my back button and rerun the search to get the normal layout.

jean said 2:03AM on 3-26-2006

I use a notebook and a desktop and both firefox, but very intrestingly the one shown by you above only comes on the notebook and the normal google search on the desktop.
http://www.irintech.com/x1/

Danie said 6:54AM on 3-26-2006

The tip for the universal version works great. Can someone supply the necessary instructions for the cookie editor to make it permanent?

Rama said 9:39AM on 3-26-2006

None of this works. You guys are wrong. This is a hoax. Here is the error message I get when using any of the script lines via cut&paste:

"Javascript error: Unexpected end of line while searching for closing } of invalid rule set"

"Javascript error: Selector expected. Rulset ignored due to bad selector"

It does not work in IE, Firefox or Opera. Nice try but just a hoax. Those saying it works are just part of the hoax.

Jordan Running said 1:50PM on 3-26-2006

Danie: To make it permanent, just set the expiration date to a long time in the future.

paul said 5:51PM on 3-26-2006

What is so special about the new interface? All I see are some indicator lines next to names of the different google search engines.

Ollanta Humala said 6:05PM on 3-26-2006

I can't make it work on Firefox:
"unterminated string lateral"

David said 9:39PM on 3-26-2006

I added :

javascript:alert(document.cookie="PREF=ID=fb7740f107311e46:TM=1142683332:LM=1142683332:S=fNSw6ljXTzvL3dWu;path=/;domain=."+location.href.split('/')[2].substr(location.href.split('/')[2].indexOf('google')));

as a new bookmark and that works fine. I just load it when on a google page and hit refresh.

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