New look for Google!

I noticed some weeks ago that while using Google, the design had been updated to accommodate 3 columns and some elements had been moved around.

I eagerly talked about it with the other inventors at Rather Inventive, but alas Google had gone back to how it was the next time I used it! As I had no screenshots or supporting evidence that I had in fact seen a sneak preview of the ‘new’ Google I was wondering whether I had imagined it myself.

However, the new design intermittently became visible for a few weeks before the offical update and overall I like the changes to it. The easy-to-use date related searches on the left panel are extremely useful if you are searching for something current. This led me to question whether content that has been around for a long time which Google would generally give greater relevance to, is in fact inferior to the most recently updated or fresh content?