Google UIUX Timeline

We glad to share our new blog post about Google’s UI/UX Timeline from 1995 to 2021. We say thanks to all readers who appreciate us for writing our last blog UI/UX design trends for 2021.  We took some time and did some research regards to Google UI/UX timeline.

In this blog post, we going to explore you how Google’s homepage has changed over the years. It’s minimal UI/UX design timeline from 1995. This timeline shows 26 years history of google about their design improvement. Now, Google’s homepage varies per device and viewport size. But I have looked at this with a desktop viewport.

Google’s Invention History:

The history of Google is well documented. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, computer science graduate(PhD) students. They met at Stanford University in 1995 and created useful inventions. Its was a highly usable and accurate internet search engine.

BackRub:

In 1995 their effort started as a project hosted on Stanford servers called BackRub. After one year it becomes popular for hosting and infrastructure outside of Standford.

Google BETA:

On September 15th, 1997 Google.com domain was registered. Google started work from BackRub to the new domain. Larry Page and Sergey Brin decided to change the interface of BackRub for making it more interactive and providing more relevant searches. Google’s branding began to take form from the older logo. This design created by Sergey Brin in the open-source image editor called GIMP. I (Muhammad Nawaz Rizvi) think at the end there was an exclamation sign that means sudden, sharp, strong and surprising search result.
But surely Google at that time was inspired by Yahoo! search engine’s logo. In addition, there was “I’m feeling lucky” button, which redirects the user’s to the first search result when pressed.

Google Minimal look 1999:

In 1999 table-based designs trends were used all over the web, but it looks like Google decided to remove the table under the logo and make their design minimal and more interactive. In 1999 Google’s intense focus on search utility to remove user confusion. On May 31, 1999, google hired a graphic designer “Ruth Kedar” to change their logo look. He design logo with based on the Catull font. At that time Google’s UX team decided to bring something user-friendly for home page and logo.

Google nav 2000:

A major change in 2000 was navigation right side of the logo. The company was focus on the hiring of jobs “Jobs@Google”.

Google disseminate Info 2001:

On the same day of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City, Google introduce new UI/UX look of their homepage for information disseminate. Something different appeared a link was added called Google Web Directory. This linked to new page where were lot of informative links existed about news business, games, shopping, health etc.

Google Tabs 2002:

In 2002 Google introduce tabs base UI interface. It introduced on top of the search bar for showing the ability to search the web, images, groups, or directories. In this interface also bottom link was added about Advertise, News and jobs etc. We can say in 2002 google split the search engine into categories.

With playful name, Froogle was also launched in December 2002. This name was a combination of two words frugal and Google. It allowed users to focus on commercial searches for tangible goods.

Google New Tab 2003:

In 2003 there was no lot of changes in Google’s UI interface , the tabs still existed, Google News tab was also added to make UX design to more friendly.

Google froogle tab 2004:

Froogle tab was added on the home page. This tab was related to Google Shopping. People did not understand what the service was actually about.

iGoogle 2005:

In May 2005 Google launched a personal homepage for a user called iGoogle. iGoogle allowed users to add various “Gadgets” on the homepage, which were small components of content and context that served a specific purpose, such as a displaying a clock, calendar, and the weather. The iGoogle purpose was to make homepage design more aesthetic and interactive.

Google Maps 2006:

In 2006 google changed tab design into links and introduced map on top of google search.

iGoogle and Sign in Nav links 2007:

The tabs are gone and the nav links at the top of the page was introduced for making aesthetic design. The links were anchors and redirected to other Google pages. On the right side sign in and iGoogle anchors links were added.

Google 2008:

In 2008, the homepage looked very similar to pretty much all of 2007. Google replaced the logo with the artwork. My Account anchor link was added in this design.

Google 2009-2010:

In 2009-2010, the homepage looked very similar to 2008. Just search setting anchor link was added.

Google dark navbar 2011:

In 2011 google added dark navbar, According to Google, this change will bring improvement to focus (what you want quickly), elasticity (usability) and effortlessness (simplicity).

Google+ 2012:

The style of the homepage stayed pretty similar, but Google introduced a link of their social media called Google+. The media was launched on June 28, 2011, in an attempt to challenge other social media YouTube.

Google 2013:

At the end of 2013, The style of the homepage stayed pretty similar but the flat logo, with no shadow, was introduced for the home page. It looks cleaner, more modern and easier to read.

Google 2014-2015:

In 2015 the style of the homepage stayed pretty similar but the flat logo, the font of the Google logo was changed.

Google Bottom navbar 2016:

In 2016 google added bottom navbar.

Google Remove dark bar 2017:

In 2017 google added Gmail anchor link which direct to Gmail services. In this design google also introduce voice search. Google was happy with the homepage because it was simple, clean and to the point.

Google 2018:

In 2018 the style of the homepage stayed pretty similar, just shadows were added onto the search input field. Also button converted to the flat design this was a very popular style choice at the time.

Google 2019:

In 2019, the shadow input was switched and search input field’s radius were increased. This was cool effect and first time google introduced this UI trend.

Google 2020:

In 2020 the rounded corners were still there, but that time the shadow is behind the input search field. Personally, I think it was looks pretty awesome and aesthetic. I think this was google first eye attracting design.

Google 2021:

Now we are living in modern age of google.In 2021 the rounded corners is still here, but this time the shadow is behind the input search field also here. In this design google introduced google custom button in the bottom of page. This design also provide plus button to user for adding their favourite website or URLs. Google has removed bottom nav bar.

Summary:

In conclusion, this blog was for spreading some of my thoughts and research about google’s UIUX timeline and design history. I hope you enjoyed reading this blog post as a newbie as well as an experienced UXer UI designer. This blog takes you one step ahead in the UI/UX field. If you like it please comments on and share it with your friends.  If you need UI/UX services to let us direct contact or by Upwork. Stay in touch with Linkedin, Facebook, Pinterest, Dribbble, Behance, Upwork.

Now you know all about UI/UX 2021 trends, you may be interested in the following:
1) What is UX Design? Overview Dimensions and Elements
2) What is the User interface (UI) design? Conventions and Elements
3) User Experience and why it matters? 20 Reasons
4) The Elements of User Experience Design
5) What is the atomic design
6) User Personas
7) What is UX psychology and it’s principal