It is the first time for me that I think that changes to the google homepage are really a step in the wrong direction. In the past they seem to have had it together on this one, if there were changes they were subtle and did not seem to get in the way of getting the job done.

Now they've gone overboard on the 'b(l)ing' factor, presumably to compete with other search engines that look 'spiffy'.

I'd rather have 10 text links (or even 30) per page without adornment than all the stuffy they've been adding lately.

Duckduckgo could easily capitalize on that, give us the very early google interface with better results.

That would make me switch, their scroll-down-to-get-more trick already is very elegant.