8/29/14

Original Poster

DJSigma

Google hompage reverted to old version in Opera

A few minutes ago, Google's homepage reverted to the old version for me. I'm using Opera 12.17. If I search for something, the results are shown with the current Google look, but the homepage itself is the old look with the black bar across the top. It seems to affect only the Google homepage and image search. If I click on "News", for instance, it's fine.

I've tried clearing cookies and deleting the browser cache/persistent storage. I've tried disabling all extensions. I've tried masking the browser as IE and Firefox. It doesn't matter whether I'm signed in or signed out. Nothing works. Please fix this!

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Recommended Answers (3)

9/28/14

Romain Burquier

Okay so I updated Safari and everything seems to work again

Thanks to you all !

Romain

9/7/14

Thomas P. - Top Contributor

The Web Search results themselves, which you're getting with the older Google layout, are same as with the lastest/current layout.

Should there be features missing in the old interface layout (i.e. not just located differently), then it's not all that many compared to the latest/current layout - or at least that's certainly very true for the Web Search organic part of the search engine.

If you're seeing functional defects in the old layout, then that is obviously not part of "the deal" (i.e. it's a bug, which may be caused by your locale browser/system, or something on Google's side - in case everyone are able to reproduce same behaviour.)

The greatest functional differences between current & older layouts may be found in the non-WebSearch part of Google Search, e.g. Google's Image Search, but it's only Google's WebSearch which (amongst other search engines) still stands out as the best search engine (albeit Google's Web Search is perhaps only marginally better these days).

So, for those of you seeing the old layout in an officially now unsupported browser, and seeing such in a working-as-intended-state by Google, then you really only have two options: Use another browser (Notes below), or use another search engine.

True, the two options (i.e.: use another browser, or use another search engine) may not be anywhere near what you hoped for, but that's what your options realistically are. (for comparison: When Google decided to shut down iGoogle, having an estimated 30-50 million users, then this forum got more than a thousand of posting within about 24 hours, and Gooogle never flinched over it)

Notes, for those w. an officially unsupported browser, who wants to stay with Google:

A collection of 10 most common browsers for installation is found at http://browserchoice.eu/
Hacks & Tweaks, e.g. the suggestion of tweaking the User-Agent string of your current browser, may work for now. But comes with a risk of suddenly (at a future time) starting to produce stange conditions or behaviours, i.e. tweaks & hacks are not truly durable fixes.

For those of you using officially Google supported browsers (typical up-to-date mainstream browsers), then: Google often changes things, which also sometimes cause seemingly unrelated things to break. Such breakage is obviously not intended, and will probably be fixed resonably fast - assuming the unintentional breakage is affecting a substantial number of users.

_____

Update/Appendix:

Determining if your browser is officially supported, is a much less straight forward task than you'd think.

- Please see my answer to Laura Bass at: https://productforums.google.com/d/msg/websearch/hEVDmDw8ccU/IDE8MKQmbIoJ

8/30/14

nealem

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the reports. I want to assure you this isn't a bug, it's working as intended.

We’re continually making improvements to Search, so we can only provide limited support for some outdated browsers. We encourage everyone to make the free upgrade to modern browsers -- they’re more secure and provide a better web experience overall.

Thanks,

nealem

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All Replies (344)

8/29/14

Original Poster

DJSigma

This is actually broken worse than I thought.

If I go to the Google homepage, I get served the old version of the site. If I search for something, the results show up in the current look. However, if I then try and type something into the search box again, Google search doesn't work at all. I have to go back to the homepage every time to do a new search.

Please fix this ASAP!

8/29/14

bluequoll (Google Search)

I'm seeing the old UI in Opera 12, but all seems OK in Opera 23.

What OS are you using?

8/29/14

Original Poster

DJSigma

I'm using Opera 12.17 on Windows 8.1.

Since I made the posts above, the Google homepage seems to randomly switch between the old look and the current one, but search is intermittently broken.

When I do get to see the current homepage, instant search does not work and sometimes if I type in search terms and hit enter, nothing happens and below the search box is just plain white.

When I get to see the old version of the homepage, search works, but then the results are displayed in the new look and further searches do not work.

Google was working perfectly in Opera 12.17 up until about an hour or so ago.

8/29/14

bluequoll (Google Search)

There are two possible issues here:

Google Search may support only the current stable version and latest prior stable version of Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer. This is certainly true and specifically stated for Gmail and Google Apps for business, although I can't find any stated policy for Google Search.

Also:

Opera highly recommends all users to update to the latest release.

See http://www.opera.com/docs/history/

8/29/14

Original Poster

DJSigma

Thanks, but the new version of Opera is absolutely awful and I'm not switching browsers. I've tried a bunch of other browsers including Chrome, IE, Firefox, Safari, Slimbrowser etc. and none of them suit my needs.

Google worked fine with Opera 12.17 up until an hour ago and it's only because of stupid browser sniffing that it's not working fine now.

338 MORE

1/11/15

Calc Calc

Exactly what makes Opera with Presto better than any other browser out there... The customisability and the level of control the user can have on the interface are incomparable.

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Google hompage reverted to old version in Opera

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