Search Bar in Google is a font size too large and buttons are too large and

Ok, I have this really weird problem where the font size in the search bar in google is very large and the buttons are not the oval mac buttons, but are rectangular and also large, but all the other fonts on the page are the correct size.

I have so far tried
- changing the font size (which changes the size of everything and the text size in the search bar is corrected but everything else is too small and the buttons are still rectangular)
- restarting safari
- restarting my computer
- clearing my history
- emptying the cache
- removing all cookies and website icons

Under the appearance tab in safari the standard font is times 16 and fixed-width font is courier 13, which is the exact same as my friends who does not have the problem. Also in the advanced tag the option to "never use font sizes smaller than ..." is unchecked.

If anyone has any suggestions on how to solve this problem that would be great.

Thanks,
Jeff

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6)

Posted on Sep 9, 2009 9:22 PM

Reply
19 replies

Sep 10, 2009 1:00 AM in response to Calabreezy

I have this problem too. It seems to be related to how Google perceives the user agent in Safari. I found that I could change the size of the buttons (but not the search box) by enabling the Developer menu in Safari's Preferences/ Advanced tab, and selecting another User Agent.
I selected Firefox 3.5.

Maybe Google is mistaking the 'regular' Safari for the new version in iPhone OS 3.1.

Sep 10, 2009 2:18 AM in response to Jeff86

I have the same problem, it started this morning just after I did a Software Update which included iTunes 9 and Safari 4.0.3. Main text on Google is ok - it's just the search bar and text is massive and buttons rectangular not oval. Firefox appears to be normal. I am using OS 10.5.8 - not 10.6. Could it be something to do with the software update? Have restarted but it's still the same.
Any help on this would be great as it's not very pleasing to the eye!
Thanks!

Sep 10, 2009 8:15 AM in response to Jeff86

Hi,
Google announced this "minor but exciting change" today; it is supposed to "re-emphasize their focus on search" and make their "spartan home page even more fun to use"...
In other words, it's all normal and not related to Mac OS X; I don't think we can easily change it, but given the universal complains it won't probably take long before they change it back to a normal size.

Sep 10, 2009 10:54 AM in response to Jeff86

I have 12 desktop macs. and 3 laptop mac's.

I have only had this problem on one of my laptops so far. I have not checked my other two laptops to see if this was effecting them. However I did check all my desktop computers and they ae not facing this problem.

All my desktops are not updated on the new itunes and quicktime patches since this thing hit my laptop around 0100am CST.

Has anybody found any work arounds even if it's simply using a homemade script.

Sep 11, 2009 11:26 AM in response to solefald

Well, it's a "feature" that bugs me. The font is huge, cartoonish and distracting and I happen to like my Mac interface not f'd with by having those cartoonish ugly, squares for "Google Search" & "I'm feeling lucky" replacing the aqua buttons put in place by Apple. If I wanted to stare at a goofy Windows interface all day, I'd switch to Windows, Google!

I wouldn't mind this so much if you could change this in the Google preferences at least, but to force this crap down our throats reminds me that we really need to be wary of how powerful Google is. They can decide things for us and because they are so huge they really don't care what we think.

Sep 12, 2009 2:44 AM in response to Jeff86

How ridiculous is this change, browsers offer the option to change the size of the font manually, why are we all forced to look at an ugly large search bar that frankly looks repulsive on screen. Why would we even want this functionality, honestly google fire whoever approved this decision, then slap yourself on the wrist. Terrible.

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Search Bar in Google is a font size too large and buttons are too large and

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