Google removes background images from homepage after one week

Google has removed the image background from its homepage. The company launched the functionality last week. This immediately led to the ‘how to remove the default image background’ query on Google being one of the most searched subjects. It’s unclear whether the backgrounds will re-appear but considering the overwhelmingly negative feedback this may be the end of the experiment.

Update June 10, 11:31AM: Last week, we launched the ability to set an image of users’ choosing as the background for the Google homepage. Today, we ran a special “doodle” that showcased this functionality by featuring a series of images as the background for our homepage. We had planned to run an explanation of the showcase alongside it—in the form of a link on our homepage. Due to a bug, the explanatory link did not appear for most users. As a result, many people thought we had permanently changed our homepage, so we decided to stop today’s series early. We appreciate your feedback and patience as we experiment and iterate.