A different type of Google Search

May 30, 2007 08:56 GMT  ·  By

Google X, an abandoned service tested by Google Labs, is about to be released but in a different version than the original one. Google Korea is now testing a somehow similar search interface that looks like the old Google X, providing some animated logos of the products that convert to colored circles once the users move the cursor over them. The search page currently provides access to Gmail, Google Groups, Google Talk, Google Notebook, Toolbar, Desktop and Picasa. As you can see if you click on this link, the interface is quite attractive so maybe the search giant wants to implement it into the final version of the search technology. Although it's hard to believe that as Google recently updated its interface, Korea was always a testing platform for the features meant to be a part of the mail Google Search engine.

If you didn't know, Google X was just an idea designed by the Mountain View company and rolled out on March 15, 2005. After only day, the search giant deleted the product without giving an official statement about the removal. However, it was rumored that Google X was infringing a patent owned by Apple that prohibits other companies to use interfaces that are similar to the dock. As you might know, the Mac OS X dock is an eye-candy toolbar that provides instant access to some of the applications installed on the system.

Although the product was removed, there are a lot of similar projects available on the Internet, allowing the users to test the deleted Google X. As I said, the interface is somehow similar to the one published for Google Korea. For example, you can test the ex-Google X on this link, an unofficial copy of the Google Search engine that uses the interface of the abandoned product.