"Fade in" homepage for Google

Google's new homepage has taken on a new look, using "fade in features"- a clear page with a surfeit of white space around the Google logo.

As a result of experiments over the span of a few months in an endeavour to create a new homepage, Google in a blog post announced that it had attempted 10 versions of the fade-in after before hitting upon the one that finally goes live.

Writing in the blog, Google officials claim that this change, akin to the supersized search box innovated a few months ago will transit from being noticeable to second nature.

Google is also in parleys with Douglas & Gordon & Savills of the UK regarding pans to launch an online property portal. This, however ,could be a downside for existing online property such as Rightmove. If its UK version is based on the Google site which is to be launched in the US and Australia, its properties would be listed free with estate agents.

Further, Microsoft has dropped its move to pay online news publishers to remove news content from Google following a statement from Microsoft on its reluctance to utilize non-Google content. This announcement followed in the wake of Rupert Murdoch's (News Corp) decision to block access to Google News with the erection of pay walls around his news sites in 2010.