Why a space on Google is intentionally blank

.. One new change to the fading homepage is the fact that there’s now a short sentence that appears under the search box when the rest of the page fades out. The line, which reads “This space intentionally left blank” was seemingly added because too many unaware users were confused by the fade effect and frantically started disassembling their computers in search of a solution (at least that’s what they do in my imagination). If the point is to remove all extraneous text, adding that message seems like the equivalent of explaining the punchline of a joke. It ruins the effect.

Besides sowing confusion, it is also creating a minor backlash. People who are seeing the fade-out are apparently not big fans of it either. Some choice tweets:

...- < google is doing strange things right now "this space intentionally left blank" ...odd > (@rpmteacher)

< Am I the only one who sees the "This space left intentionally blank" thing on Google? I think it's creepy. > (@TheJuanReyes)



via Google Makes Fading Homepage A Little Less Confusing For Unaware Searchers.