When starting IE this morning I noticed a different kind of google start page. An annoying kind of page. A page with a great big distracting image on it. The kind of page that could make you want to change search engines !!
On checking I found
The Official Google Blog announced the feature, stating that they would be publishing ‘inspirational’ pictures on the background of Google.com for the next 24 hours, to highlight the new feature.
The blog states that there ‘Are photographs of the works of Dale Chihuly, Jeff Koons, Tom Otterness, Tord Boontje and others , as well as some incredible photos from Yann Arthus-Bertrand and National Geographic.’
Users can choose to upload their own picture from their computer, or link to a Picasa Web Album to customise their search page.
Unfortunately, many users on the Google help pages have been asking how they can delete the background image all together and replace it with ‘classic’ Google.
To remove the background image, registered Google users are able to sign in to their Google account and then click the ‘remove background image’ link in the bottom-left hand corner of the screen.
If you are not a registered Google user, you may either sign up to Google and follow the above instructions, or wait 24 hours for the images to disappear.
So Google – if you are watching (as I know you are) – get rid of this – and give people a choice that does n’t require them to sign up !