Remember way back when HotBot offered customized home page graphics? Actually, I believe it was HotBot, but it has been so many years since I have seen it, I can’t recall exactly. I tried to grab a screen shot but was unable to find it, so perhaps the option is long gone by now. At any rate, Google has now followed suit and added customizable themes for the personalized view of Google Search.

These screen shots have been taken from their beach theme. They offer a small selection of dynamic themes that change to reflect the time of day. Some selections include a bus stop, city, and seasonal.

These themes are available to anyone logged into their Google Account who selects “Personalized Search”. I for one prefer the basic simple interface. I am not much for all this customization as I personally don’t use these extra features.

It is interesting though that Google has taken an age old idea from HotBot and implemented it themselves. I guess making the theme dynamic adds a twist on this old idea. Will it catch on? I suppose only time will tell.