Google is being pretty quiet about it, but the top search engine on the net may make some small changes to its winning formula. Granted, Google is always rolling out little tweaks — safe search, for instance, can be turned off without going into the search settings, just like it used to be. Why is that handy? Well, you see kids, when — uh — let's just move on!

The changes here will be more than cosmetic, though there are some of those, too. Bigger, gaudy buttons are the simplest alteration. The largest is the now-included sidebar, which takes the links up top and turns them into a more visible list of options. For people unfamiliar with Google's many features, it's a smart move as it's way more user friendly. For the rest of us, I prefer the simplicity of the old setup — Google's minimalism has always tickled all the right spots — but I can deal.

Of course, true to Google's "betas forever" policy, you may be waiting a long time to see the change, and it may end up looking entirely different. Click on the image below for a larger view:

Want to see it for yourself? Head on over to Blogoscoped — it's as easy as pasting a javascript into your adress bar (you may need to log out of Gmail, Wave or what-have-you first, however.)

Via WebMonkey