But over the past few months, Google has also been secretly testing a new UI and look for the Google Search engine, which has essentially not changed much since its inception. Do you want to be one among the secret testers, to have a sneak peak of the new design?

To get this Hack Attack to work for you, you need to be using the international version of Google i.e. http://google.com/ncr and not the localized version that you are redirected to usually.

Once you are at the Google Homepage, copy the following text and paste it in the address bar as it is…

javascript:void(document.cookie=”PREF=ID=20b6e4c2f44943bb:U=4bf292d46faad806:TM=1249677602:LM=1257919388:S=odm0Ys-53ZueXfZG;path=/; domain=.google.com”);

Once you are done, press enter and reload the Google Homepage. You Should now be looking at an all new design for the homepage. Perform a search and you’ll see a new search results page with an always visible Sidebar.

So Do you like the new look? I do quite like it, at least the sidebar is useful to perform searches more rapidly. But I’m not quite sure if it will be well received by all the people because it is quite a departure from the Google we are all used. However they could tone down the Blue a bit because at times I feel am at the MSN of yesteryears rather than Google.

Or you never know Google may never release it in the wild…

However if you aren’t a fan of the new design, you can remove the corresponding cookie from your browser. Here’s how its done in Chrome

Leave your comments, as to what you feel about the new Design?

Via Google Blogoscoped | Google Caffeine Update | Image Credit : ientu

For long I’ve always felt that Mac’s were super sexy and did extremely well in the looks department of a computer. There’s this self attracting charm of the Mac’s that pulls in the crowds wherever you take it. Looks like Dell is aiming to do something similar with its Studio Hybrid Desktops.

Dell claims that the Studio Hybrid desktops are the most power efficient desktops in the market today and it Uses about 70% less power than a typical desktop, and it meets Energy Star 4.0 standards with an 87% efficient power supply. Well done Dell!

The major selling point about the new Studio Hybrid’s is that they are extremely environmental friendly. Here’s what Dell has to say, “Studio Hybrid packaging is made from 95% recyclable materials. And the Studio Hybrid comes with a system-recycling kit, so you can help preserve and protect the environment”.

Going by its looks you might feel that it is severely underpowered just like the Mac Mini. But it isn’t the case. The base model that retails for 499$ (without monitor) and for 699$ (with monitor) comes in the following configuration :

• Intel Pentium Dual Core (1.86 GHz)
• 8X Slot Load CD / DVD Burner
• 1GB RAM (DDR2 , 667MHz)
• 160GB Hard disk (5400RPM)
• Integrated Graphics (GMA X3100)

The Studio Hybrid’s suffer from weak 3D performance due to the system’s integrated graphics, but if you don’t need to play 3D games, the Studio Hybrid is a good alternative to the boxy mainstream PC’s that have dominated the market since the dawn of personal computing. 

Personalization is an added benefit,  several acrylic shell colors are available including Topaz and Ruby, the system can also be wrapped in a bamboo finish and changed on the fly through a swappable sleeve. The design can either sit horizontally on a desk or upright by using a special stand.

The higher end Hybrid’s are just as good as the modern day towers with Core 2 Duo Processors and upto a maximum of 4GB of RAM.

Looking at all this, I feel that Dell has a winner at its hands. It beats the Mac Mini hands down with option of a Blu-ray drive for HD video, HDMI video out, an 8-in-1 card reader and the choice of a TV tuner.

With the impending refresh of the Mac line, we have to wait and watch for what Apple comes up with. I’d want the Mac Mini compete heads on with the Studio Hybrid. At the moment though it is the Hybrid’s winning the battle.

If only Hybrid’s ran Mac OSX, it would be the best small factor PC/Mac out there suitable for a small home theatre in your living room.

Nice industrial design from Dell. The bamboo model looks particularly nice. What are your thoughts on the Studio Hybrids?

Today Last.fm decided to take wraps off its new design they’ve been working on since May. I was not a part of the beta but still at first glance the new design looks little different from the one we saw during the beta period. Looking through the Last.fm forums I found that the beta design was much criticized and the design that we see now is after tons of user feedback.

I was a Last.fm user for quite some time before I stopped using it for unknown reasons. In the past Last.fm always had a confusing navigational structure that for some reason never got you to what you wanted. Looks like Last.fm team has worked hard to resolve the navigational issues that plagued the old design and the new design is marked improvement over the older one.

Take a look at the screenshots yourself and you will see why the new design is much cleaner and more functional than the old design..

The New Design

The Beta Design

The Old Design

Surely the new design is more clean and functional than the original Last.fm. But so far the new design has evoked nothing but reactions favoring the extreme negative.

Some users have gone to the lengths of calling the new design as Myspace clones and they have expressed their dissatisfaction over it. Here are few opinions about the new design…

MidwinterSun said,

the main problem here is that the new site is just a mess. The old last.fm had identity. It was different. And what do we got now? A parody of web 2.0!

Last.fm used to be about the music we listen. So when I visit someone’s profile, I see what their tastes in music are. This was the reason I liked last.fm – the musical revolution, right?

It was different. Now it’s like every other site on the web.

Ant17 said,

This, however, sucks. I can’t believe one of my favourite and most used sites is about to go straight to the trash bin. If you want to make a site look like a new vulgar, post-modern tacky iPod which is completely user-unfriendly, then there are plenty of pointless social gathering sites to visit.

There is absolutely no need to destroy one of the best working and most appealing sites that’s been praised for years, without any option of a decline. Quite simply, horrible service and a now horrible site.

A lot of people have asked Last.fm an option to switch back to the old design.. If you don’t like the new design voice your opinion in this forum thread, hopefully Last.fm will listen to its audience.

Also give a try to this Userstyle that gives Last.fm some new features while preserving the identity of the old design.

And to conclude, I actually like the new design, but I feel that Last.fm has lost much of its identity its built up over the years with this design. Maybe an extended beta would have been a better option..

What is your opinion about the new design? Which one do you like?

Screenshots Credits – ReadWriteWeb

I’m one of the few kind who has more fonts on his system than any other type of stuff. Call me a font addict, but I love trying out the different fonts to see how it looks. Case in point, I’ve spent over 80 permutations and combinations of fonts for the business card that I’m designing for myself.

Everyday I come across fonts that are lovely and I want to try them out. But it isn’t all that easy to find which find the artist or designer has used. Earlier I’d drop the designer an email politely asking if he could share the fonts with me. Well not anymore, thanks to an awesome new service called WhatTheFont that makes finding the font used in a particular image a task of the past. In a few clicks you can download/purchase the font for your personal use.

WhatTheFont is a site that lets you upload a logo or any other image that contains text and shows you a list of fonts that are likely to be used in that image. WhatTheFont supports some common image formats like GIF, JPEG, TIFF, BMP, but you can’t upload images bigger than 360 x 275 pixels.

After uploading an image, you may need to enter the corresponding letters from the text, since the system can’t always detect them accurately. In the example below, the site recognized the font used in Google’s logo: Catull

The only thing that I don’t like about the service, is that after it detects the font correctly the only way you can get the font is by purchasing it. In my opinion an option to download the fonts for free would be nice too.

This would be definitely be a tool that I’ll be using regularly. Maybe one day I’ll finish off designing my business card

Via Sizlopedia

Here is a rundown into its amazing feature set that Litmus has:

• Web page testing

See screenshots of your web pages in dozens of different browsers within seconds. Lightning-fast speeds mean snappy iterations, letting you solve more cross-browser issues more quickly.

You see your entire page from top to bottom, not just the area visible above the fold.

• Email testing

See screenshots of your email newsletters as they appear across popular email environments. Like our web page testing, email tests are lightning-fast to speed up your workflow.

A screenshot of the email full length is shown so you can ensure the design is perfect throughout.

• One-click publishing

Need to show your client a copy of the compatibility results? With just one click, you can.

All published results have their own permanent URL. An elegantly designed, completely unbranded snapshot of the tests you’ve performed, instantly ready to share.

• Precise bug tracking

Litmus’s tracking system lets you see exactly where the compatibility issues are at any time.

By tagging your results as compatible/incompatible you’ll always know what’s working and what’s not. This is even more valuable in team situations.

• Painless version management

Keep your results super-organised with Litmus’s unique versioning system. As you progress through your testing iterations we keep all your previous tests neatly together, organised on the version timeline.

So if you are a web developer, then Litmus is a must have app that you must have. Go give it a try.

Visit Litmus Homepage

• Discover CSS right from your browser
• Extract style sheets and learn new tricks
• X-ray pages to reveal their structure
• Override Other Sites CSS and have fun

• Selector Builder takes the Yuck out of selectors
• Intuitive visual editors let you edit in style
• Modify source code with intelligent CodeSense
• Organize in folders and filter easily

• Instantly Preview anything, even Web Apps
• X-ray’s Inspector finds your applied styles
• Milestones let you mess up without worries
• Weed out errors with the slick Validation tool

So if you are a Web Designer, make sure you add CSSEdit to your design kitty.

Old Design :

New Design :

From what the above screenshot looks like I feel Google has done a brilliant job by making sure that the new interface is not completely alien to its huge base of users and at the same time it has made it more attractive and functional. Job Well Done Google!

A Few Notable Changes Include :

• Removal of Stylish First Alphabet of a user from the profile.
• A New Navigation bar.
• Rounded Edges (Web 2.0 huh!)

I can’t wait to test out the new design myself. I’ll post a detailed screencast with details with what is new on orkut..

Image Credits : Google Blogoscoped