What does everyone else think? Google have changed their font so it is big and ugly. This has not been rolled out to everyone yet so you may not be seeing it at the moment. I think it's ugly and annoying and just another indication that the design 'experts' at Google are clueless. I guess I shouldn't be surprised after what they did to YouTube...
Seriously, are we going to start a fuss about a questionable font choice on an otherwise very useful and handy tool?
The font makes it a lot less useful and handy. Not least it means people are having to redo title tags to take account of the lesser room - http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2332515/New-Google-Search-Layout-Has-No-Underlines-Makes-Titles-Bigger Plus it's just uglier and harsher on the eye - people are entitled to point out something they look at regularly is worse than it was before.
Results may or may not be dumb / ugly / difficult to read / horrible, but one thing is sure. It is harder to differentiate the ads and they are taking more area above the fold. Google which started as the only company that doesn't sell the top spots, is almost doing it now. What a shame, this is what happens when companies grow, go plublic, reach the ceiling and shareholders still pressure for better results every quarter. Classic example of greed taking over.
Don't forget Google made their page secure so people can't tell what the search terms are customers are using, yet you can if you pay for AdWords and people click on your ads. Hmm...
I think Google has their own way of increasing their revenues like this update in search results that there is no underline and the font is bigger. Now the most interesting part is the general design change in Adwords the font is bigger and the additional was the [ad] box that is colored yellow which I think will result to increase CTR (Click Through Rate).
That they are just doing what people here have been advocating for years. I've never liked it and never done it but have a browse through here and you'll find plenty of threads about blending ads into the site so that they look like natural links.
I agree that the SERPs look really weird to me since I've spent so much time staring at the old design. But I'm sure Google focus group'ed the crap out of this version. What I'm worried about is that, because of the larger font, the character limit for title tags has been reduced. Plus there are less results 'above the fold' so being in the top 3 is even more important now.
I don't mind the larger font at all. I don't think they went overboard with it. If Google had that font from the start nobody would have even given any thought to it. Anything new strikes us as unusual.