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Comment by NathanKP | Hacker News Reader

I really can't stand the black bar at the top of the screen. After so many years of low contrast it feels way too distracting. But the redesign isn't going to bother me that much since I've been using DuckDuckGo exclusively for months.

Edit: If you can't stand the black bar either, just switch to the secure version of Google: https://encrypted.google.com/ They haven't changed it yet and it usually lags behind on updates.

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This is the sort of thing that seems hugely distracting for a day or two, and in a week or two you'll be so used to it that, if someone were to take it away, going back to the way it was would seem like a huge distraction. For about two days.

That is true, eventually our brains will readjust and we will tune it out as usual. I suppose for the meantime the huge contrast will draw more attention to Google+ when they release its full features for everyone.

Obviously, the nav bar has been internal for a while. I was not a big fan when I first saw it either, but now I've grown to quite like it. It's across all the products, and it sort of stamps the page as "you're at Google", much in the same way that you feel when you see the orange at the top of HN, or the blue at the top of Facebook. Even if you're tuned out, its in your peripheral vision and you get that sense of place.

(DISCLAIMER: I'm an intern at Google)

I get the black bar on the secure version too. :(

Hmm, that's strange... I'm not seeing it. The way Google rolls out tests and betas though there is never any way of knowing if you might be in a test group seeing something different from other people. Many times I've seen random features pop up and then disappear. (I assume because Google was testing something with a subset of people.) In one case I even received an email from Google telling me I was in a private beta of a new feature that I was not supposed to tell other people about it. I'm still pretty proud of that actually.

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