Google.com. Everyones favourite webpage, whether they know it or not. Visited by more people per second than Chuck Norris can count (and he’s counted to infinity, twice, so). And now, since recently, “clutter” is hidden altogether until you move the mouse, after which a header and a footer fades in.

Fading out clutter is not the same as uncluttering or even cleaning up a design. If you feel your design has lost its way, you do not fix the problem by “hiding until your mouse moves” that which you think clutters it all up. So not only does the fade effect not clean things up, but it has the following usability problem:

• Subconsciously, the copyright notice in the footer is an indication that the page is done loading. I’ll bet you many a soccer-mom loads Google these days, waiting, waiting, waiting for it to load. Until they move the mouse: “Ah, it’s finally done loading!”
• If you intend to hide your topmost links to mail, maps, images and so on, why even keep them there? Removing all those links would go a ways to uncluttering the page. Currently you’re just pissing off people who use them on a daily basis in place of their bookmarks bar.
• Invoking the fade that “re-clutters” the page happens virtually every time anyone visits your website, if not instantly, then eventually. As such, any uncluttering done is quickly undone as soon as any activity actually happens. Which makes the fade virtually useless.

What happened to you Google? You’ve changed man. You used to be cool.