Google looks totally different on my pc suddenly.

I'm not sure if it's an issue with my pc or what, but suddenly, today, Google doesn't look normal for me like usual. The main page, and especially the advanced page, are totally different. I ran ccleaner hoping that would sort things out, but it made no difference. It looks the same on all my browsers. Can anybody here tell me what's going on? I can't stand it.

Here is a screenshot of how advanced search looks currently on my pc, using the latest build of firefox.

Advanced search is the same for me. It looks like Google's changing things again.

What a shame. It's awful. I feel totally lost on the advanced search page now. It was perfect as it was. Also, it doesn't seem to work for me now. It doesn't remember my selections (safesearch, last update). No way to get the old look back then? I can't imagine most people being happy with this.

They are slowly fanning this change out to different servers. Sometimes I get the new look and other times I get the old look. I like the old (more compact) look better. Also, it was easier to tell where the fields were in the old look on a laptop. With the new look, I have to change the viewing angle at times just to see things.

I seriously can't get any of the settings to stay since it changed. I don't know what to do. For instance, when I change SafeSearch settings, it forgets them as soon as I start a new window. I don't know what to do. I go into "customize your search settings" on the bottom, and it seems to show all my settings, but when I open up a new tab with advanced search, my settings aren't in effect. This is horrible.

And the interface seem like a step backwards. In the old advanced search, you didn't need to use things like "-" for without and "or" - you could if you wanted but there were already separate boxes and it made it a bit easier to throw in a couple different words, 1 in each box. I seriously hope enough people complain that they switch back, though I'm not sure how much effort they've put into this so maybe it's here for good (or for bad).

They want you to be logged in to Google in order to lock some settings in place - like safe search.

You are not alone.
It looks the same way for me as well.

It's absolutely unusable for me. I don't want to log into my google account every time I want to surf.

If I type something and run a search, and then remove a search term in the search box and add a new word, it keeps the old search term and the new search term too.

For instance, I type in "Fringe discussion" at the top under "all these words". Now at the results page, I add to that "fox" so that it reads "Fringe discussion Fox". When I hit enter, the new search term at the top are for "Fringe discussion Fox Fringe discussion". If I remove everything from there but Fringe and just add, "Fox", so that it now reads "Fringe Fox", the new search results page shows the search query as "Fringe fox Fringe discussion"

It's totally messed up and Google is now totally unusable for me. Try those search terms just as I did. Does it happen to you? I'm in panic mode right now without a functioning Google. This can't possible be how it's supposed to work now.

EDIT: I just tried the same search results on Chrome and it doesn't happen. It only happens on Firefox. In fact, I can save my Google settings just fine in Chrome and it remembers them. Google is broken for me with the newest Firefox 10.0.2. I have no idea what's going on here.

I've not checked with anything other than Firefox 10.0.2 - I cannot save the settings. I have/want no Firefox add-ons.

...but I don't use Firefox & Google search - I use IE for that - so I'm good.

Guess there's no add-on or anything to help Google behave better in Firefox? I can't believe everybody is experiencing issues with Google not working right on Firefox now. Firefox is widely used and everyone uses Google, so is this really happening to everyone or is it just me? I know the look has changed, sadly, but in Firefox it won't even remember my settings from one search to the next. It's awful. It seems to remember fine in Chrome, but I prefer Firefox because of the add-ons I use.

Today specifically, google has changed everything.

ALL your settings for all google services in existence are now all tied to a single user account. You don;t need to be logged in to use most of the services (Search, maps, etc), but their behaviour won;t be the same and to get full features you have to now be logged in...

It's quite thing they've done. Europe is not too happy about it at all, nor are quite a few higher ups in the U.S. It's quite a leap into the future world where every single thing you do every second of the day is recorded and made public for everyone else to see (assuming they have money to pay google to see it).

They are touting things like if you search for "lemon scented candles" on goggle that you may now be emailed "Fruit scented candles" spam (and to your G+ account etc) because they are all now completely tied together... Horray!

fseal said:

They are touting things like if you search for "lemon scented candles" on goggle that you may now be emailed "Fruit scented candles" spam (and to your G+ account etc) because they are all now completely tied together... Horray!

Click to expand...

Question please. If a user does not have a GMail account, but uses Google search and YouTube, is that user traced by Google ? Assume Chrome Browser is traced regardless of GMail Acct ?

Good question. I'd imagine they don't trace you like that unless you're signed in, but I couldn't say for sure. It's just a guess. I'd like to hear what others think on this. I really wish I knew why Google won't work right for me now on Firefox, yet works fine on Chrome. I don't even sign in, yet it works fine in Chrome.

Well I wouldn't say they can't, weather they do or not I doubt anyone but them knows. They still use tracking cookies like mad men even if you aren't logged in and a HUGE area of research is ways of connecting peoples various accounts on different companies and servers to a single identity. (Well beyond research really, there are some commercial tracking companies already doing this for pay)

However, the most BLATENT examples of cross utility tracking and targeting will probably not happen if you do not log into any of google services at all...

They do track you even if you are not signed in. If you are using a google service -even without signing in- (youtube, maps, search) and logging into any site with a username and buying something online on another site -even without signing in- in the same browser; next time when you log in to the same site even from a different computer in another country, the ads section of the site you logged in would be customized to show similar items to the item you bought. Also, all tracking information are kept indefinitely.

Don't Track

Don't Bubble

A good rule of thumb at this point is, as much tracking and private info selling that you might think they may be doing, there's a good chance it's twice as bad as you are thinking

fseal said:

.

They are touting things like if you search for "lemon scented candles" on goggle that you may now be emailed "Fruit scented candles" spam (and to your G+ account etc) because they are all now completely tied together... Horray!

Click to expand...

Hence I keep the ad blockers for Google sites in place on Chrome

if you want to search for something specific in google then add an exclamation mark at the beginning and end of the words, ie " fringe discussion fox"

here is the result

fseal said:

Today specifically, google has changed everything.

ALL your settings for all google services in existence are now all tied to a single user account. You don;t need to be logged in to use most of the services (Search, maps, etc), but their behaviour won;t be the same and to get full features you have to now be logged in...

It's quite thing they've done. Europe is not too happy about it at all, nor are quite a few higher ups in the U.S. It's quite a leap into the future world where every single thing you do every second of the day is recorded and made public for everyone else to see (assuming they have money to pay google to see it).

They are touting things like if you search for "lemon scented candles" on goggle that you may now be emailed "Fruit scented candles" spam (and to your G+ account etc) because they are all now completely tied together... Horray!

Click to expand...

And where, pray tell, did they get your e-mail address ???