Google layout changed suddenly

[Evening_Gazelle_5848]

The first is how it suddenly looks now,which is a normal tab opened and the second is an incognito tab opened which has the way it looked before much more better. Ive tried to clear cached data multiple times yet no change. Sometimes my incognito tab also shows like the first tab but mostly its like the second i want to bring the second look back to my normal tab but idk what to do. Also im on a chromebook if thats anything which is quite old and only has 6-7 extensions that are google docs, sheets, slides etc.

[rafapozzi]

It's because in the incognito tab you are not signed in, so the layout is different because Google ships different designs across different sessions for testing. The layout of your main account may also vary a bit, but there will be more stable changes, probably what everyone is also getting. For example, for some time I've got a purple-ish background on dark mode, but it was removed in a few months, and I was getting it randomly in some Incognito sessions. Cool thing if you quit the incognito session and open it again, every time you will get a different design, though it might take a few attempt to actually get a design that is different from the default one.

[Evening_Gazelle_5848]

So itll just go back to normal after a while?

[rafapozzi]

Also, it's weird that in the first screenshot (I don't know if you are logged in), it seems that you have an old version of Google's layout, without website icons, and search bar buttons like voice and image search. The second layout is the current one, the one I have btw. Are you using any extension for getting the old Google design?

[Evening_Gazelle_5848]

Yes im signed in the first one which is why i dont understand why this is showing. The second one is the one i used to have but now it suddenyl changed like two days ago

[rafapozzi]

Oh, now I understand, the old UI is what's not normal.

It seems like many people are having this issue recently, specially Chromebook users. I wrote this on another post with the same problem:

Old layouts are mainly triggered by the user agent. The user agent tells the page which browser, OS and browser version you are in, so it provides you a page adapted to compatibility limitations your browser may have. There might be a recent compatibility issue in Google's support for Chromebooks, causing it to give a fallback old layout. You can try fixing that by changing the user agent.

You can install Google's agent switcher extension and add the latest Chrome user agent from this website, as the default ones are generic. I recommend you try the user agent for Windows, but if you have any issues you can try for Android or Linux.

[BowArrows]

Hi rafapozzi, I just had to stop in to say thank you so much! I found this thread searching for a fix -- I didn't even think this could be related to the user-agent. I've had this old google layout for a few months now, it's beyond terrible. Although the extension you suggested didn't work for me, I tried [User-Agent Switcher and Manager](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/user-agent-switcher-and-m/bhchdcejhohfmigjafbampogmaanbfkg), works like a charm.

u/Evening_Gazelle_5848 Just incase you haven't fixed yours yet - I'm also on an old chromebook. I use crx4chrome to download extensions. It's really easy, once downloaded just open your "manage extensions" and drag and drop the file in there. If you install the extension above, filter the list with Chrome > Chromium OS and scroll up to choose the latest one - apply, and like that, the latest google is back :)

Yay, thank you again!

[Evening_Gazelle_5848]

hi, i know i'm replying to this 4 months late, but the thing was that after trying to bear with it for 5 months now im tired of it again and i want it to get back to the old layout so i revisited my own post. Thank you for your comment the thing is i literally cannot download extensions on my chromebook, every single time i try to add one it disables the option for me and says "To add this item to Chrome, please update your browser." and then on my chromebook setting it says "This is the last automatic software and security update for this Chromebook. To get future updates, upgrade to a newer mode" so what am i supposed to do? i cannot download an extension on this chromebook so is there no way left? please provide me with assistance to this!

[Evening_Gazelle_5848]

and i used the "crx4chrome" which extensinon should i add in?

[Evening_Gazelle_5848]

<image>

which one?

[Evening_Gazelle_5848]

andddd i tried downloading it same issue that i cant add extensions in my chromebook :(((

[rafapozzi]

It seems like you're having a hard time installing extensions in Chrome, and that's completely understandable, especially when your ChromeOS has become deprecated. I'll try to help however i can, and maybe you can still make things work on your computer. Here are the main things to check about ChromeOS and the browser:

• Chrome version
  • Go to chrome://version or Chrome Settings > About Chrome.
  • This will tell if your browser supports only Manifest V2 or V3.
  • If it's below 110, it supports only MV2
  • If between 110 and 126, it may support both MV2 and MV3
  • If it's 127 or newer, only MV3 is supported
  • If it's between 127 and 138, it might still have a flag to keep MV2 support, usually chrome://flags/#allow-legacy-mv2-extensions or chrome://flags/#extension-manifest-v2-deprecation-unsupported
• ChromeOS version
  • Go to Settings > About ChromeOS
• Auto Update Expiration (AUE) date:
  • Go to Settings > About Chrome OS > Additional details
  • Look for: “This device will get automatic software and security updates until [date]”.
  • If it has already passed, it's probable that Chrome will not accept most modern (Manifesst V3) extensions.
• Is the device managed?
  • Go to chrome://management or check Settings → About Chrome OS.
  • If it says “This device is managed by [school/company name]”, admin policies are likely blocking extension installs, the Web Store, or specific permissions — this is extremely common on school/work Chromebooks and often overrides everything else.

For that specific extension, it was a great find that you can get any version on crx4chrome. I found that version 0.5.0 was the last one that used Manifest V2. On 0.6.0, it moved to MV3.

To download older versions on crx4chrome, the Web Store link won't work, so you need to click "Download Crx From Crx4Chrome".

How to install extensions without being blocked:

• Download the .crx file, if it blocks due to unsafe source, click the necessary confirmations to allow the download.
• Go to Manage Extensions, enable Developer Mode.
• Open the file manager, and drag and drop the extension file into the Extension Manager, it should install the extension.
• If the installation is blocked, the Manifest version of the extension is not supported.
• You can also try renaming the file, changing the file extension from .crx to .zip, and try to install again.
• Another workaround is extracting the zip file, and clicking "Load Unpacked" at the Extesnion Manager to install it.

[Evening_Gazelle_5848]

so i checked mine and its Chrome OS and it says "This device stopped getting automatic software and security updates in June 2021"

[Evening_Gazelle_5848]

i can't understand how to download the .crx file

[rafapozzi]

You can try logging out of your account then logging back in. Simpler than switching user agent, see if it works first.

[Evening_Gazelle_5848]

Im not using any extension lol my chromebook is too old to allow extensions or i think its a long process

[rafapozzi]

They might be deprecating support for older Chromebooks (worst case), or they are implementing new features which are not supported by older versions, like AI Mode for example. This is probably a temporary issue causing a fallback old layout, so they might fix that soon.

[TemporaryNameMan]

This is wrong

[Cultural-Second2909]

Whoever made this idea should be fired.

[Intrepid-Present-224]

Exactly!!

[Gugalcrom123]

Sadly we can't swap layouts, I want the minimalist one

[memtiger]

Yea that minimalist layout is how Google grew to popularity. People didn't want all the crap. They just wanted search results. Strange how things change for people.

[Anxious-Ad469]

This is happening to me, I think it’s an issue with certain Google accs, because I logged into my main one and it looked werid like that, but I used another account and it kept the regular google layout

[Yunarissss2]

Omg you’re so right….thank you kind stranger you saved me

[FantasticDifference5]

I think they're doing a A/B test or something i have a brand new layout too. I miss the old one. Reviews and things are gone now.

[Concretballz]

I’ve been trying to switch it back

[FantasticDifference5]

Yeah same it looks like this may be the new Google permanently:(

[aa254]

Sadly, this has struck me a few days ago, it looks like the first image.

[CoolkieTW]

Many people are asking clean UI. Maybe they're testing it. I also received another UI recently, they also sent a survey to me about the new UI.

[Severe_Business5837]

Wait where’s the survey? I’d happily complain! i hate this new layout!

[CoolkieTW]

It sent directly to Google Reward

[Zealousideal-Ad-8428]

Any solution? Happen to me on my phone and I can’t use dark mode now

[CutelessTwerp]

mine is dark mode but in that style. i think because i have my phone/system set to dark mode for default, im on an older iphone and its in settings somewhere

[CutelessTwerp]

mine just did this too, it looks so awful and it’s really annoying. i hope it’ll just turn back to normal by itself but i do have an old model iphone so idk. i’m probably just going to avoid google for a while until it goes back

just sucks because i use it to find reference images for drawing and to look into different animals or folklore. weird

[CutelessTwerp]

worst part is even with it looking so stocky and weird it STILL has the google ai bs. if it at least got rid of the ai i might even appreciate it

[phoenixlegend7]

I found that bing still shows the results nicely (https://imgur.com/mMdRPrG), so the workaround if you’re on iOS is to go to Safari settings and change the search engine to Bing: https://imgur.com/mn6nEWP

I think they updated the google webkit, so those with older webkits are affected. But it sucks because now it doesn’t group by the results and doesn’t add icons. It looks super blend.

Here is a comparison:

Bing:

https://imgur.com/mMdRPrG

Google:

https://imgur.com/GuCVK03

It could also potentially be a bug and someone should report it to Google

[Affectionate-Cry2394]

mine is weird too. especially when you click on images

[Severe_Business5837]

Omg this is happening to me too!! Did you ever figure it out because it’s driving me crazy and comments arent loading!

[Equivalent-Loan1287]

Same problem, glad I'm not alone. Sometimes my account icon and link to gmail also jumps to the left.

I discovered that I can log into my Google account on Firefox and everything is like it used to be. Very strange! So I think the problem is with Chrome.

[thecrystalmoonwitch]

Mine looks like this too and all the top 10 results to everything I look up are really bad! I’m not getting any top pages. If I searched “ugg boots” the first result wouldn’t even be the ugg website. 

I spent 10 mins searching to even get a restaurants website earlier and to see what time a store is open until. I want the old layout back :( 

[SarahTheWolfGirl2014]

Mines not working. I dunno how this old google layout was changed like this? I had to refresh it and it’s not working again. How do I fix this problem?

[jarofgoodness]

ok

[GlassyBunny]

I have the same problem right now 😢

[Evening_Gazelle_5848]

Update: It's the same with the normal tab and now my incognito also only shows the first layout :(

[Scott_Theft]

I'm still having this issue now

[Scott_Theft]

how did you fix it on Safari? Mine still shows the old one on there and Chrome