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Google Image Search on iOS 7 seems to have reverted back to the legacy interface.
Instead of showing a full screen preview of the image, it is now showing the image as an overlay above a framed in view of the source of the image.
You can see a before shot from a post I have in 2012.
Here is what I see now on my iPad running iOS 7:
Google has not yet confirmed the bug, but there are dozens and dozens of complaints about it in the Google Web Search Help forums over the weekend.
Searchers are saying:
iOS 7 and Safari or Chrome using google search on images displays thumbs fine, however when you select one it now directs you to the web page instead of creating a side scrolling preview list of the thumbs off the initial page.This worked fine this morning and now its not working properly ~ who made a change and how do I fix this?
Is this a bug or Google reverting back to the old interface to appease some webmasters? I doubt Google is reverting anything.
Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.
Comments:
Stuart David
09/30/2013 01:28 pm
Noticed a 120% increase in traffic from 'Apple Mobile' and a 40% increase for 'Apple Tablet' at a specific point, see graph (In GMT) (not just on one site either). I hope this isn't a bug and is permanent! Today has been a little slower mind since about 6am GMT
Stuart David
09/30/2013 02:53 pm
An FYI also, what we can gather is, when someone is on a cell network, and apparently on the move (not on a wifi) they seem to get the above, we notice in USA, Canada and UK specifically, This might be a smart move by Google to prevent the huge download times that come with images of variable size and how they load images to the left and right. By looking at the IP's that come through over 2/3 days, we noticed that any influx seem to come from cell networks opposed to home or business broadband providers. Again, if this is the case, real smart move to speed up search, as i know this was an issue for people on the go with their cell packages being consumed by image downloads!
WebmasterBR
10/01/2013 02:23 am
Hi Barry, I'm from Brazil and I got a website with some celeb pictures, nothing has changed in my traffic yet since this bug or revertion of Google Images on iOS7. You say you doubt they are reverting but just for fun I bet with you they really reverted Google Images back, and I think they will revert the desktop version too... Goodbye...
ELMConsulting.org
10/01/2013 03:04 pm
I like the new user experience as a consumer, but as a marketer I see how its thwarting clicks through.
ELMConsulting.org
10/01/2013 03:05 pm
Wow Stuart thanks for sharing!
Leslie Lunger Delp
10/01/2013 08:09 pm
Hate it. I can't even thumb through photos. I have to click the back button each time to view all the thumbnails.
Stuart David
10/04/2013 03:40 am
I think they have returned it back to normal now, where doesnt click through, can anyone confirm?