rootninja

Google recently updated the look & feel of their image search.

(sometime earlier this week)

Once you click on an image, instead of framing the source website, you see the image front and center like a Polaroid picture. Meanwhile the source page is displayed behind the image with a grey-ed out tinge to it.

The Upside

It looks pretty clean and smart. No more page 1, 2, 3, and on. Instead, as you scroll down more images are loaded as needed.

I like this approach, it feels more like the Google Reader as you’re browsing photography related pages.

Dinky looking sidebar

The right sidebar seems left out of the update. It’s very plain-jane html old school looking, and it doesn’t resize or ‘do’ much of anything.

It would be nice to see other pictures found on the page or pictures like the one you’ve selected available from the sidebar.

The Downside

It’s slower.

If you have a large window open, you’re behind a restrictive proxy/firewall, or happen to be on a slow connection, you might notice it just feels sluggish to load at first.

Using the Chrome browser seems to help alleviate the feeling of congestion somewhat, but sometimes you’re just stuck using an old version of Firefox, Opera, or god forbid, Internet Explorer.

So what’s next?

Let’s hope a more integrated Picasaweb is right around the corner. Or android development, or … oh forget it. I could make this list go on forever.