Google Looking Over the Fence into Yahoo!'s Yard

I'm sure no one had the curiosity of checking out every homepage for every country that Google has set up, but be certain that you haven't missed much. All the pages are exactly the same but for the language. All except one: Google.cn that abandons the traditional clean and uncluttered look for a more Yahoo!-ish approach of the matter at hand.

Of course, to be able to see the piled up links and the numerous and confusing pictograms you will have to click on the language tab, but assuming you are all that interested, you must know a little kanji to be able to do that. For the rest, here's the link to the official Chinese Google homepage.

Google Blogscoped warns that this might just be a test and that it might not become the main Google portal in the world's second largest Internet market.

Users have submitted many comments, ranging from expressing concern that this might be final to assuring that the Chinese people consider sparsely laid out sites as unfinished or poorly designed. Others note that most major Chinese web sites are cluttered and that Google.cn is actually focusing on localization or that the Chinese largely prefer clicking links to typing.

"I am a Chinese. I dont think most Chinese people would feel the new Google look is great. But I appreciate Google's innovativity for tring to serve Chinese more by allowing more info entance. I partly agree with Brian for we Chinese consider sparsely laid out sites as monotonous. We Chinese generally like being served with many choices," says one user in an attempt to try and clarify the matter.

"Google's GUI was a hit (back in the day) because it truly emphasized search, which at the time no one was doing well. Everyone is doing search now, and doing a decent job. The "simple interface" was just a fad, almost a marketing gimmick. I think Google recognizes this fact in the US as well, since they typically direct a user to a portal version with some default content", underlines another user. What will it be? We'll just have to wait and see...