Some Google Search users noticing weird mobile-like UI layout

Google appears to be running another one of its experiments, and this time it’s leaving desktop users pretty confused.

Multiple Reddit threads have popped up over the past few hours with people asking “what fresh hell is this” after finding their search results suddenly centered in the middle of the screen instead of sitting on the left where they’ve been for years.

The bizarre layout change makes desktop Google Search look almost exactly like the mobile version, cramming everything into a narrow column right in the center of the page. One user on Reddit nailed it when they said it “looks like the mobile view” and joked that “someone pushed some bad CSS”.

In a separate thread, another person sarcastically commented that “after 27 years they finally figured out how to center a div”. One user even shared a screen recording of the UI. Check it out in the embed below:

Some users note that the new layout only appears when they are logged into their Google accounts, which has been the case with similar A/B tests. Several people reported that signing out, using incognito mode, or switching to a different browser brings back the normal left-aligned layout.

Over on the Google Support forums, a Product Expert responded to complaints by walking users through standard troubleshooting steps like clearing cache and cookies or disabling browser extensions. But they also acknowledged what’s probably really going on here: “it is most likely a Google live experiment that your account has been randomly selected for”. These tests usually stick around for a week or two before disappearing on their own.

The reaction has been pretty negative so far. One frustrated user wrote “THIS IS AWFUL… why smash everything into the middle of the screen???? i want the old ui back already”. Another person asked if there’s any way to change it back, calling the new design “so ugly”.

Google frequently runs A/B tests on small groups of users to see how interface changes perform, but this centered layout experiment isn’t winning many fans among those who’ve been selected to try it out.