Very understandable that they want to go back to minimalistic look, and I applaud that.
(but why did they changed it to the non-minimalistic look a while ago in the first place then? I can clearly remember all the discussions it brought on back then)
The only thing I realy don't understand is why choosing for this fading-effect on mouse movement. Because I'm realy certain most people (incl., and even especially, the millions of average users for which this minimalistic look is intended apparently) will actually move their mouse, making this whole "minimalistic"-argument a bit useless. Keyboard shortcuts are mostly used by "power" users, not by the average guy (which is the majority), who even doesn't know the shortcuts.
quote:
Originally posted by traxor
It's all about usability and Google have got it right.
I disagree. It didn't improved usebility in any way. In fact, it made it a bit worse in case you need to go to those other links (eg: language tools which I use regulary). And in case you only need to search something, nothing has changed. So in overal, it is worse.
(same with their OS, which is a big usebility flop also, but that's a whole other discussion).
/ 
