Forget background images on Google from Nov. 16

BANGALORE, INDIA: So far, you had the option of picking from among natural sceneries, man-made wonders and even your personal image galleries and customize it to be the background image on the Google search engine's home page.

It's time you let go of those colorful visuals and be ready to get back to the staid, plain white background of the good ol' days. According to a statement from the search giant, background images are going away this November 16.

"Thank you for using background images. As we build a more streamlined Google Search page for everyone, we'll no longer be able to support customization with background images. So you will no longer be able to see your background pictures starting November 16, 2012."

So, you are left with two options now: Either remove your favorite background wallpaper now itself or wait till Google does it for you.

"Click Remove to stop using a background image now. Your current background image and Picasa web albums will still be available to you," stated Google.

It is perceived to be a part of its "Continued Spring Cleaning" process, which it more than indicated in a recent official blog entry. "Technology offers so many opportunities to help improve users' lives. This means it is really important to focus or we end up doing too much with too little impact."

Besides the background image customization option, AdSense for Feeds will be done away with from December 3.

©CIOL Bureau