Say Goodbye To The Black Google Navigation Bar, & Hello "Google Bar"

It wasn't very long ago that Google moved to a new design for their "Google navigation bar" that sits across the top of the browser, creating a simple but bold black bar with simple links to other Google services. Today Google announced the next evolution of that Google bar, which begins rolling out to users immediately (I'm not seeing it yet on my end), and it looks pretty sweet.

The New Google Bar

the Google bar is not a candy bar. Nor is it an actual bar serving Google-branded beer (though I guess that wouldn't be too big a stretch.) Google Bar is... well, a new Google navigation bar.

Every time a major site like Google or Facebook tweaks a design element, users tend to freak out... at least in the short term. Eventually, they either change their minds or just get used to it. So I'm sure there will be detractors who aren't fans of the new look and feel of the Google bar. Personally? I think I'm going to like it a lot.

Why? Well, a few reasons:

• Easy sharing with Google Plus (including the ability to share to specific circles).
• Your drop-down of Google services will now reside under the Google logo (it opens when you roll over it), which I think is a nice way to keep the functionality while removing an icon from the bar.
• There's also a search box in the new Google bar.

Here's a video from Google about it:

You can see in the video that the new Google bar is actually taller than the old one, and sort of merges the old/current black Google bar with the standard page header, creating extra real estate.

While this isn't a video-related move, it will, no doubt, impact the way video creators and marketers navigate and interact with the various Google properties. And it's easier than ever to share things on Google Plus from almost any Google service you're using. Any design change that touches this many Google products is huge news, and definitely worth taking note of regardless of what you're trying to promote online.