Google background was a test
Apparently google making me hate google today was a test to see how much users liked or disliked having background images.
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Web%20Search/thread?tid=52d49a85dcfbdb9f&hl=en
No surprise that everyone hated it(at least hated it being the default).
June 11th, 2010 at 09:13
I didn’t see it in person, but I kind of like how it looks in your screen shot.
July 26th, 2010 at 00:55
I really think this whole thing was a response to Bing, and the Google users spoke out about it. Geeks loathed it; common people kinda liked it. It’ll be interesting to see if they continue to develop for it, or if it becomes a forgotten “feature” of Google, like Pig Latin.