Is black the new blue? Google tests black links in search results

Google is notorious for changing the look of its search results page, but quite a few people are complaining about the company’s latest A/B testing which is changing the color of result links from blue to black. For those who are not aware, blue has been the default color for web links for nearly two decades. If a web developer doesn’t assign a specific color for links on its site, the browser’s default setting will display links as blue.

Apparently, conforming to default standards isn’t good enough for Google. In the past, Google has done A/B testing with 41 different shades of blue for its search results links to identify which shade was more appealing to users. We’re not sure if Google is really considering black as the default color for its search results, but it’s nice to know that the company is always looking at new ways to improve its products – even if that means breaking away from well-rooted industry standards.

What’s your take on Google’s incessant A/B testing methodology? Are you seeing black links in your Google search results?

@google Google! The black unclicked links look terrible and are not very functional! #BringBackTheBlue pic.twitter.com/mkKsrar3B3

— Joe Madden (@Hyper200) May 9, 2016