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August 12, 2011

Google's Experimental Sign-in Pages

It's probably the first time when Google tests a new sign-in page by asking users to try it. If you go to Gmail and you aren't logged in, you should see a message at the bottom of the page: "Coming soon: A new sign-in page! Preview it." When you click "Preview it", you'll see a new sign-in page that uses the Google+ design.


If you opt-in to the new interface, the sign-in pages for Google Docs, Google Reader and all the other Google services will also change. "For a limited time, you can switch back to the old version of the sign-in page by clicking the link at the bottom of the page. However, eventually this change will be permanent and you will not be able to switch to the old look," informs Google.


For reference, here's the soon-to-be-deprecated interface:


The new input boxes are a lot bigger: you can type 31 characters in the username box and they're still visible. In the old interface, only 20 characters from the username were visible at a time.

{ Thanks, Herin and Evan. }

18 comments:

  1. I don't have a message at the bottom of the page: "Coming soon: A new sign-in page! Preview it." When you click "Preview it".

    =(

    ReplyDelete
  2. I hate the red buttons in gmail, and in every other product of google, It is intrusive.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The terminology used in this article is incorrect. It says "soon-to-be-deprecated interface", however it is already deprecated. Perhaps the author meant "soon-to-be-replaced".

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deprecated

    ReplyDelete
  4. This has to be the most anti-climactic change ever. whoopity-freakin-doo.

    And for those that don't like the red buttons, you are entitled to your opinion, but "intrusive'? really? perhaps you should consider getting a grip. It's just a button in one of the three primary colours. Methinks people are a little too sensitive these days.

    ReplyDelete
  5. @Robert:

    I disagree. The new UI is opt-in, so it's not enabled by default. I wouldn't call the existing interface deprecated as long as it's still the default interface and you need to click a link to preview the upcoming UI.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Google is also testing an experimental account chooser page that you can opt-in to. It will keep a list if the different accounts you use and list them on the sign in page.

    https://sites.google.com/site/gitooldocs/experiment---account-chooser

    ReplyDelete
  7. Here's the link to the 'preview' sign-in page:
    https://www.google.com/accounts/OptInToNewSignInUI?continue=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Faccounts%2FServiceLogin%3Fservice%3Dmail%26passive%3Dtrue%26rm%3Dfalse%26continue%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fmail.google.com%252Fmail%252F%253Fui%253Dhtml%2526zy%253Dl%26bsv%3Dllya694le36z%26ss%3D1%26scc%3D1%26ltmpl%3Ddefault%26ltmplcache%3D2%26from%3Dlogin

    ReplyDelete
  8. If you follow the link from @Dave it turns the new page on for you until you turn it off.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I like it! I can't say that I see any "must-have" feature, but in terms of looks I think it's nice.

    Thanks for the tip Alex!

    ReplyDelete
  10. It's nice but I prefer the traditional Gmail logo instead of Gmail written.

    ReplyDelete
  11. When Google asks you to relogin, and presents you with a page with your email address already filled in, then it ALWAYS asks me to re-enter that address after I type in my password and hit Submit.
    That field is not editable, so I just reenter my password and it works the second time. It's been like this for months. Doesn't anyone at Google every use their own software?

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous August 13, 2011 12:41 PM: "it ALWAYS asks me to re-enter that address"

    I don't know, but maybe this will help you?

    https://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=14257

    ReplyDelete
  13. Thanks for the link...Love it..
    You have similar links to the experimental search ?

    ReplyDelete
  14. hi mashida,

    me too.. i don't even have that message... but from what this article show, i totally like it...

    before this, when i type my username , i have to scroll to left to check my username whether it is rightly spelled or not if the username is too long, now i didn't have too.. good move Google

    ReplyDelete
  15. this has caused me no end of frustration as i manage a dozen or so google apps account, switching accounts on one service logged me out of others and so on

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous said...

    I don't know, but maybe this will help you?

    https://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=14257

    It doesn't address the issue I described. My correct email address is already visible and uneditable. There are no captcha fields.

    ReplyDelete

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