New Google Bar: A Step In The Wrong Direction

Published by Toronto Mike on December 6, 2011 @ 19:23 in Technology

google Has your Gmail updated yet to give you the new Google Bar? I have to roll over the Google logo to access other Google services, and I need to choose "More" or click "Even More" to get at some of my favourites.

Here's a screen cap of my Google Bar:

Google Menu

As it is, this Google Bar is a step in the wrong direction. Calendar and Reader, two of my most frequently used services, are a couple of hovers away.

Google needs to make the Google Bar customizable so we can choose the options available on the top tier. Until they make this customizable, I'm going back to good old fashioned bookmarks for my navigation.

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7 comments

7 Responses to "New Google Bar: A Step In The Wrong Direction"

A.R.
December 7, 2011 / 01:47

Gmail is not my main emai service thankfully because the new low-contrast look is rather unsatisfying. I wouldn't even have a Gmail account if it wasn't for Google's monopolistic policy of requiring Youtube accounts to be linked to Gmail accounts.

Another new Google annoyance is the recent change not to carry over searches between certain sections, like from search to news. I often found it useful to do a general search on a topic and then switch to news to see recent developments on the topic. Now it's less convenient.

Cambo
December 7, 2011 / 07:36

Can you believe the world we live in now, where some of our greatest complaints are trivial things such as the layout of the Google Toolbar????

Mike, please bring it back on the rails and start writing (or accepting more guest writers) about actual legitimate stuff.

The Google Toolbar? Seriously?

David
December 7, 2011 / 08:15

Trivial, yes, but the internet is a daily part of what many people do. Not everything needs to be serious and thought-provoking all the time.

Toronto Mike
December 7, 2011 / 08:34

@Cambo

Are you new here? When did I ever say I was going to tackle serious issues only?

I write an awful lot about sports and television and movies and music, some pretty trivial subject matter!

And yes, I'll write about first world pains, because they are still pains, even if they're pretty trivial when compared to war, famine, freedom and health.

The new Google Bar frustrates me, and when something frustrates me, I'll usually write about it.

Do you want to write a guest entry?

Al
December 7, 2011 / 09:30

It would be nice if the Google bar just remembered which applications you used most frequently and put them on the main bar.

Cambo
December 7, 2011 / 10:33

Trivial, yes.

The one point I will agree with that it needs to be either static or customizable so that you can "pin" your frequently used apps there. The apps seem to switch themselves around all the time. Calendar is there, then it disappears the next time you open the browser.

Oh man, now I'm bitching about it. Stop me.

A.R.
December 8, 2011 / 16:28

Now I'm using the new bar and it carries over searches which is good, but it's such a distraction from the clean simplicity of Google. If you think Google is trivial, than you must be living under a rock. It's a core part of the internet, a cornerstone of modern life. There's no moving away from it, unless you're fine with inferior search results.

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