Google is in the midst of a test that could change the face of its search results depending on its results, effectively altering the colors of links to black instead of blue.
Traditionally, users would see the same thing in Google's search results: a plain white background, 10 results per page, with the link name listed in blue and the URL in green.
However, reports began to emerge late last week that Google had been replacing the blue links with black ones, while previously visited links appear in a lighter shade of gray rather than the current purple.
Google saw my blue links and they've painted them all black,
No colours any more, they want them to turn black! pic.twitter.com/NItnW8NF05— Mark Summerfield (@patentology) May 9, 2016
It's unclear what Google's aim in this experiment is, however it should be noted that experiments like this are the norm at Google. Up until last year, the current navigation tab you were looking at was highlighted with a small red line, rather than the blue one we see today. In a similar vein, Google once tested 41 different colors of blue for Gmail ads and search result links in 2009, which ultimately earned the tech giant an extra $200 million in ad revenue per year.
The difference between those experiments and this one is that changing blue to black is far more noticeable. If Google is checking to see whether people are more inclined to click black links over blue links, then early results suggest that the answer to that question is no. A plethora of Google help forums were flooded with grievances, with the common complaint being that users can't tell the difference between clicked and unclicked links.
Fortunately for people who don't like the new color motif, a source says that blue links should be back for everyone as of 20:30 UTC on Monday. If not, then clearing the cache and cookies should do the trick.
In the meantime Google has issued a statement about the change, albeit in its typically cryptic fashion. "We're always running many small-scale experiments with the design of the results page," a spokesperson said. "We're not quite sure that black is the new blue."
