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September 11, 2009

Bring Back the Small Google Search Box

If you don't like Google's new search box and you think the font size is way too big, there's a Greasemonkey script that brings back the old interface. I've tested the script in Firefox and Google Chrome, so you should try it if you use one of these browsers.

In Firefox, you need to install the Greasemonkey extension, restart the browser and then install the script. If you use Google Chrome Dev Channel or a recent Chromium build, follow these instructions and copy the script to the User Scripts directory.

From:


... back to:


{ Thanks, Anon. }

63 comments:

  1. Small is indeed beautiful.

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  2. small looks nice. It would take some time for people to make habituate to big font.

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  3. There should be a Greasemonkey script to change everything back to the Stone Age. I mean all those changes since then just drive me crazy!

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  4. I think google is WIN.

    I dont understand why this matters to anyone.

    Spend cycles on changing things that matter instead of trivial things folks.

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  5. I agree! Google should give us the new Docs interface they promised usweeks ago! Or at lease give us a release schedule. Google, your loyal fans are waiting...

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  6. Nothing is good or bad, its only a habit and with time we began to love anything, also when we have 'options' than there starts the question of like or dislike, am I right?

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  7. It doesn't matter anyway. All users want is the an option to choose themselves and A FREAKING WORD FROM GOOGLE ABOUT THEIR PRODUCTS RELEASE/UPGRADE DATE!!!!!!!!

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  8. I think it's more clear for what you looking for and also, do you know how many times I clicked on wrong suggested phrase?

    Anyways it's too much hassle to run greasemonkey script to make changes.

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  9. Nice way to change it back but what was the real reason to change it anyways?

    By the way I like it!

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  10. ULTRA LARGE FONT IS ONLY NEED BY THE OLD AND BLIND, since I'm not either yet, I find it quite distracting (besides, I don't want people on the otherside of the room knowing what I'm surching for :-).

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  11. This would be great if I typed everything in size 18 font. But I don't. So it isn't. The previous size was about what I feel comfortable with viewing on a computer screen. This isn't because it's what "Google had". It's because I don't like massive font sizes. They get distracting. I mean, I've been using a computer for 15 years, much of which has been to type documents. As a previous poster said, it's for the old and blind. I'm neither. Call me crazy, but I just don't like Google yelling at me.

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  12. And for Opera users, just copy the script to the scripts directory

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  13. Unfortunately, the script doesn't work in Opera because it uses Greasemonkey functions (GM_*), but it's not very difficult to add this code at the beginning of the script and define the GM_addStyle function:

    if (typeof GM_addStyle == "undefined") {
    function GM_addStyle(css) {
    var heads = document.getElementsByTagName("head");
    if (heads.length > 0) {
    var node = document.createElement("style");
    node.type = "text/css"; node.appendChild(document.createTextNode(css));
    heads[0].appendChild(node);
    }
    }
    }

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  14. I hate the new font size, and will be switching to yahoo or bing if it doesn't change back by the end of this month.

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  15. This is just ridiculous, either I will start to use Bing.com , hey Google you pulled the bone out of the dogs mouth now your gonna get bit in the Hand...

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  16. why can there be something like this for people who use internet explorer

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  17. For IE, install IE7Pro, copy this file to C:\Program Files\IEPro\userscripts and enable the script in IE7Pro's settings.

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  18. google looks like windows 3.1.1 you know before we where able to have a good sreen res.

    This is a step backwards, and yes in does matter I for one don't want to back to the dark ages of masive fonts and 0 res.

    It looks rubish on screen!!!

    Google you set of wallys

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  19. i am using internet explorer 6.0 and i would like to use that userscript but i just don't know how get on to my computer,i don't want to have to upgrade to IE7 just get on to my computer,any advice on how i can do achieve this goal .

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  20. IE7Pro supports Internet Explorer 6, despite its misleading name. I've converted the script to work in Internet Explorer and I tested the script using IE7Pro. Read the comment above.

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  21. i install program that you mention and it work like charm,i wish i known about two days ago .

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  22. The large font BLOWS..SWITCH IT BACK!

    Stop treating us like sheep.

    How much did this little bit of genius cost you to come up with?

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  23. Absolutely horrible, put it back as it was.
    It was not broken so why fix it

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  24. If you wish to have this font then allow us to select font size in options, It looks like CRAP.
    I will be going to Yahoo if this continues.

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  25. Dear Google. What were you thinking? Seriously. I thought we understood each other. Maybe you thought that I took you for granted but I always loved you. You were so clean and respectable. Then suddenly you start speaking to me in great big letters as if I'm an idiot. Oh god. That's it isn't it. You think I'm an idiot.

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  26. I like google - but only with greasemonkey UN-SUPERSIZE script !!!
    This idiot supersize design is echt schlecht !

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  27. Alex Chitu's solution works beautifully. See post September 13 2009. (Make sure you 'reload all scripts' in Preferences/User Scripts).

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  28. Doesn't work on FF, but there are plenty of work arounds for that. Search Firefox Grease Monkey Google Supersize...

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  29. @Chris:

    Did you actually read the post? It's about a Greasemonkey script that works in Firefox, Chrome and now in Opera.

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  30. Seriously, the Google searchengine exists like 10 years atm? ... If it takes 10 years to come up with this sort of useless modifications, its obvious that Larry and Sergey arent as smart as they think they are, they were in the right place @ the right time.

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  31. I barely even use the front page any more. Most of my queries are sent through the browser or through a quickbar application. And, I usually ignore what's on top when the results come back...

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  32. The big font on search box drove me crazy - I hate it! Thanks for the script that brings it back to small font!

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  33. Just use http://www.google.com/ie

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  34. small is sweet.

    thanks for the script. it works! :-)

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  35. Why cant google give us a choice to choose between large or small.Small
    look better.Now it looks like if your monitor screen is to small for the text.I think if google will make you choose,more than 85% of its users will choose the smaller version(change back).I hope google will
    solve this problem for us,who wants the previos version(smaller)back.

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  36. The script works on the initial page but then the text size reverts to the larger one on subsequent links

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  37. Who ever thought that this big this was a good thing should be taken outside and slap six days from Sunday.

    For not giving the user the option to control interface - just hit them with a monkey wrench, until they promise not to do it again.

    Praise Greasemonkey script - it works :)

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  38. Cant stand the new look - - bring back the original sizing cos this is off putting!

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  39. It was so distracting when the search box was HUGE! Anyway, thank you so much for changing it back! Love Google 'again' =]

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  40. Make it smaller PLEASE!!!

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  41. Why should the search box text be bigger than the search results? We have to read them all under the same conditions. If people found the search box text too small they could have just zoomed in a step with ctrl & mouse wheel, making everything a touch bigger.

    This was a really dumb decision.

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  42. I think I just realized why they pulled this bonehead move...

    Google is always trying to shove their browser "searchbar" addon down our throats. I don't know about you guys, I like my monitor real estate to go to what I want to read, not "addons". I'm guessing that Google knew that virtually everyone would hate the Fisher-Price searchbox and install the Google bar addon so that they don't have to put up with it.

    Very clever Google! But stupid!

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  43. Ok, this was a bad move in most people's eyes from Google.
    What they should have done, was change it, but have an option, in the upper right hand corner [or left etc] to "Classic Google"

    Was Google really this dumb, to have it be a one-way street?

    So here is my question...

    Are they going to change it back, or at least allow us to?

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  44. Very good question.I hope google read all this comments.The positive comments of this change(new face)of google is very scarce.I think,reading through all this comments,google must have surely notice it.

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  45. I don't see how anyone could find a way to complain about this: the text is larger, therefore it's easier to read. Period. I love it.

    Yet the Luddites still complain.

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  46. Alex Chitu - many thanks to you for providing the anti-Special Needs sized script for Internet Explorer.

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  47. Some older people at my office type everything big. It is hard to read, so I make it small. Why can't Google let us choose?

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  48. It indeed looks hideous, hold your ctrl key and "scroll" down. FF should save your preferences.

    If that fails use msn or yahoo to find the greasemonkey unsupersize script.

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  49. When Google alters the size of the search box and font, I laugh and circumvent the change with a script.

    When webmasters cry bloody murder about ad blocking, I laugh and continue blocking ads.

    I surf the web on MY terms, and within the conditions that best serve MY needs.

    If Corporate entities and webmasters want me to submit, then they will have to force me to my knees, because I'm not going down without a vicious fight.

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  50. Are Google really now going to leave us now with this bigger search engine and not give as a choice to choose between the 'new bigger' and the much preferable smaller search engine most of the Google users prefer.For those Google users who can not see the smaller print,get a eye test or put on your specs.Smaller is best,just read the comments.

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  51. Does anybody have a way that works to reduce the super-sized search box for the vision impared in Safari?

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  52. I don't like it. The script isn't good enough, it flashes the "big" version right before the CSS alters it to what was and should still be "normal". Anyone have anything better?

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  53. Just use http://www.google.com/firefox
    It's a small search box

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  54. The Firefox Google page is obnoxious.

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  55. I agree with the comments above criticising the new font (which just became active in the UK). I get the impression that Google designers live in some strange anti-feedback bubble, where how good an idea is perceived to be is a function of the number of hours they’ve spent working on the concept, multiplied by the number of words in the smug blog articles they write bragging about their 'innovation' and 'brilliance' (see here: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/now-s-u-p-e-r-sized.html). Someone really ought to tell them that self praise is no honour, and that customers whose wishes are ignored can and will leave for suppliers that listen to them more. First, Google imposed country-specific redirects on their users (meaning that people abroad found they suddenly couldn't use the language-specific version that was appropriate to them as individuals), then we had Gmail with its threaded conversations intended to reflect the way internet forums work, which completely corrupted the way most mail applications had been dealing with e-mail (you can’t download the same e-mail on multiple devices any more – reading it on one device renders a given message impossible to download on another device because of the way threading has been implemented), and now we have an imposed SEARCH ENGINE FOR THE BLIND, for all. If Google don't want to experience the same mass exodus of users that happened to Infoseek in the early nineties, and AskJeeves at the turn of the Millennium, I suggest they start listening to the feedback of *actual users*, and stop indulging the ridiculously-conceited whims of their egotistical and grossly deluded designers. Arrogance is not the same thing as innovation.

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  56. Google falls further and further from whence it came.

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  57. The greasemonkey script doesn't appear to work any more. Had been working for me for the past couple of months, now it has no effect. :(

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  58. PS: Same commenter as mentioned the Greasemonkey script is no longer working here. I just checked for some alternatives, and this Firefox add-on works pretty well at getting Google back to its old format:

    https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2592/

    Ironically, it's actually designed for people who want to view the web in a larger font all the time without having to change their zoom level manually during each page visit. However, you can adjust the settings so that sites appear 100% -sized by default, but any changes to zoom level you impose for a given site (say google.co.uk) are stored permanently. I found that reducing Google's new settings by 20% gets you back to as near damnit the preferred old Google format.

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  59. i think the smaller is cool .. thanks

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  60. Put the google font back the way it was - it's extremely ANNOYING - HATE IT HATE IT HATE IT and for those of who aren't computer gekes, we don't know how to fix it so you could at least GIVE US A CHOICE - large bold font is just like yelling at someone!!!!!!!!!

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  61. For those who wish to have a fubar-free Google homepage, I present the following:

    http://www.freewebs.com/theesim/google.html


    Many thanks to the person who made it.

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