After testing a new color for its search result links, Google has settled on black. This interesting information came to us from Mashable in their article, “Why Internet links are blue, and what Google’s ‘black’ experiment means.”
The search guru is experimenting with black links in search results in lieu of the more traditional blue and the feedback has not been completely positive. The blue link has been around for awhile so it is difficult for many to adjust to the change. Let’s face it, we are creatures of habit.
Considering blue links have been the default link style on the web for more than 20 years, it has to be less about aesthetics and more about the psychology and possibly sociology of color. A hyperlink is essentially shorthand for “click here.” When I make a link, I want my readers to click, so hiding the link in a monotone doesn’t seem like a wise move.
Google seems to always be running many small-scale experiments with the design of the search results page. “We’re not quite sure that black is the new blue,” shared a Google spokesperson.
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Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in thesaurus, ontology, and taxonomy creation and metadata application.
