At least the bing text is designed to contrast the background image. The Google homepage looks awful, and there doesn't seem to be a way to turn it off.
If you 'Change' the background image, there's one with just a white background, which effectively takes it back to what you're used to. It isn't exactly 'turning it off' per se, but it's probably what you want, regardless.
It's interesting to contrast the response between geeks and grandmothers when Google adds Pac-Man (with sound) to the hompage, and a nice picture of some pigs.
This is depressing on so many levels. If Google continue down this path, we'll need a new search engine startup that does what Google did 10 years ago.
For me, personally, I want a slimmed down duckduckgo. I just want results. That is all. Listed in a table.
I don't want zero click info, don't want oddly formatted extra stuff. Don't want an infinite scroll bar wizard.
Just want results. In a list. Formatted exactly the same every time.
When I do a search on duckduckgo, I get SIX results on the first page. Which isn't good use of screen real-estate (IMHO). I want to see 20 or so results.
For anyone in the UK, going to google.com gives you 'original' google without the background. A redirect sends you back to the UK version but if you set your homepage to google.com/ncr it should stick
So I set Duck Duck Go as my primary search engine a long time ago but I have this bad habit of just typing "go" into my url field and Chrome autofills "google.com" for me and I hit enter. This will break me of that habit, I can just as easily type "du" and go right to http://duckduckgo.com. Thanks Google, I needed that.
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[ 3.9 ms ] story [ 74.7 ms ] threadSecond thought: so I'll be able to turn this off tomorrow right?
You have to be logged in into Google to have a "different background", thus, any background at all.
I'm mostly using firefox search these day but boy, this thing is awful...
http://neosmart.net/blog/2010/google-adds-support-for-custom...
Even submitted it to HN, but I guess since it's TechCrunch it makes the cut :)
(link: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1384608)
I don't want zero click info, don't want oddly formatted extra stuff. Don't want an infinite scroll bar wizard.
Just want results. In a list. Formatted exactly the same every time.
When I do a search on duckduckgo, I get SIX results on the first page. Which isn't good use of screen real-estate (IMHO). I want to see 20 or so results.