14 DAY TRIAL // Google may be planning to give all of its apps and services a great do-over, creating a more unified experience across the different products. None of Google's biggest names is spared, starting with Gmail and moving to Docs and News, all of which will supposedly get a brand-new interface, very similar to Google Wave. Even the search results page will be pretty drastically redesigned to bring it in line with the overall new theme.
If the leaked photos Engadget managed to get its hands on turn out to be accurate, Google Wave is just the first step and offers a glimpse of how most of Google's apps will look and feel in the not-so-distant future. The source of the screenshots says Google's "goal is to provide a consistent experience throughout all Google Apps and blur the line between the browser and the website (e.g. drag and drop, right-click, etc.)."
That sounds reasonable enough, it's something that Google obviously has a great interest in and has been working towards for years. It launched its very own web browser just to make its apps run faster and integrate better with the desktop and now it's even launching its own operating system to take that even further.
As for the photos themselves, they don't look obviously fake, though Engadget wasn't able to verify the leak with any other source. The design elements are coming straight from Wave, but the changes are more than just cosmetic, it looks like most of the elements will be more interactive, especially in Gmail.
That being said, Google is notorious for the seriousness it treats its designs and for the fact that changes like modifying a border's thickness by even one pixel can lead to endless debates and studies at the company. It's true that Google constantly tweaks and updates its products and this includes design elements, but for the most part, the company has been very reluctant to make any radical change, especially to its search engine. Most of Google's interfaces are becoming somewhat long in the tooth, though, and, despite having some common elements, there isn't a clear common theme across all of them, so it will be interesting to see if Google really does have something like this cooking.
