Google has been testing out a homepage with its logo and a search box. Users need to press enter to search because there is no search button. Google even put up instructions on the test page: press enter to search. Is a homepage with even more white space better than Google's current homepage?
I guess its good now. Any more changes can screw things up. Removing some unimportant links on Google's homepage will do no harm though. Pressing enter to search is absolutely ridiculous. What about those browsing through their phones?
Only a few see the changes. That is how Google tests out select features and UI changes. Google simply only shows the changes to certain IPs.
For testing purposes they set up a completely new address, e.g. www2.sandbox.google.com was used for testing Google's Caffeine Update. They never make any changes to the main Google homepage unless tested multiple times.
Google randomly selects users to test out new features on their main google.com page. For example, they are testing out another UI change informally known as the "Jazz" user interface. http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/021202.html
It's not better I would say it's one of the worst idea's ..because new users coming to search in google would move away from it if they have a layout with no search button..