The Google homepage layout changed several times in the last decade, as one would expect. But it changed less than other homepages, and less radical – its changes are evolutionary, rather than revolutionary*. The last change was a move of the navigation to the top left, the place where applications long before Google put their menu – e.g. Apple Lisa OS from the early 1980s below**. For a more complete overview, take a look at the updated visual Google.com History from 1997-2007.
And this likely won’t be the end of changes as Google cross-integrates even more products, and tries to unifies even more of those into its “universal search.” Perhaps one day, the Google AI is smart enough to present just a single search box for all our needs [WMV] (websites, news, images, videos), along with a Windows Start button-like dropdown to launch the several Google office applications (mail, calendar, photo management and so on).
*Compare this to the relaunch of the Yahoo homepage in 2006, for instance... or the way AltaVista changed its look over time.
**A reproduced screenshot courtesy of Wikipedia’s entry on Lisa.
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