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Hate the Black Bar in Google.com and Search Pages – Here’s How To Remove It

by | Tuesday, 28th Jun 2011 | 45 Comments | Share

Google recently launched a new design which sports a new Black menu bar with grey colored text. The new menu bar is an eyesore and is being hated by many people.

No Black Bar in Google Search

If you are someone who does not like the new design change by Google, here are few ways to disable or change it back to an earlier version with white background and blue links (coming soon). Right now you completely disable the black menu bar on all Google pages.

The trick uses a script so you will need a compatible browser or user a workaround to run Greasemonkey scripts in Opera, Internet Explorer or Safari.

Like I said, right now I just hide the bar completely, but I am working on modifying the script to change the black bar to an earlier version of Google. Stay tuned for updates on this post to know when it has been updated. I have tested the script and it works in , and . I am still testing it in Internet Explorer 9.

In the meantime, have fun without the ugly black bar in Google Search. You can download and install the Google Black Bar hider script from here.

Update: You can also return back to the classic toolbar for Google by installing this script.

 

 

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I am the editor-in-chief and owner of Techie Buzz. I love coding and have contributed to several open source projects in the past. You can know more about me and my projects by visiting my Personal Website.I am also a social networking enthusiast and can be found active on twitter, you can follow Keith on twitter @keithdsouza. You can click on my name to visit my Google+ profile.

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  1. rentstrike on June 28th, 2011 at 9:13 pm #

    Thank you! That grey/black bar is among the ugliest “innovations” I’ve ever encountered. Let’s hope it goes the way of New Coke, taken back due to popular repugnance.

  2. Jrobie on June 28th, 2011 at 10:37 pm #

    Thanks for the script. Can you implement this so it removes the bar in Google Reader too?

  3. BongMonster432 on June 28th, 2011 at 10:39 pm #

    Hey buddy its almost good except it removes the whole bar so you can not click on news images etc.
    We just need something to change the color background from black back to white.
    Cheers

  4. Charles on June 29th, 2011 at 4:19 am #

    Thanks for this! Ugly bar gone in Chrome.

    However, won’t install in Internet Explorer 9 (script error).

  5. Anja on June 29th, 2011 at 5:14 am #

    How do I remove this script again?

    • Keith Dsouza on June 29th, 2011 at 1:15 pm #

      @Anja – If you use Google Chrome you can remove it from the Extensions. If you use Firefox, you can go to Manage Scripts in Greasemonkey and then remove it from there

  6. sterlingtimes on June 29th, 2011 at 6:47 am #

    It’s a shame but this does not appear to work with igoogle.

    • Keith Dsouza on June 29th, 2011 at 1:14 pm #

      @sterlingtimes – I have updated the code for it to work with iGoogle as well. You can re-download the script from userscripts again.

  7. coola on June 29th, 2011 at 7:18 am #

    1. First, install GreaseMonkey:
    https://addons.mozilla.org/pl/firefox/addon/greasemonkey/
    2. Second, install GoogleBar Classic GreaseMonkey script:
    http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/105744

  8. Rand on June 29th, 2011 at 7:30 am #

    I`m using this script for GreaseMonkey http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/105744
    It returns old-fashioned blue bar.

  9. Daniel on June 29th, 2011 at 8:11 am #

    Is there a way to let Google know that really really really don’t like the colour change?

  10. Linda on June 29th, 2011 at 9:06 am #

    I use FF, I installed Greasemonkey and your script, and it shows it is activated but the black bar is still there.
    I am resentful of Google making me have to find a work around to get rid of this horrible black bar.
    What am I doing wrong? I really HATE this black bar. It offends me and I am furious at google right now.

  11. Richard on June 29th, 2011 at 11:06 am #

    Thanks Keith,I was glad to see that someone came up with a script so quickly! Unfortunately,for me it’s not working in gmail or google reader where I was hoping it would. Soooo, what I did was use Element Hiding Helper for Adblock. You have to use it on the bar twice to block gbx4 and then gbx3. Works perfectly in gmail and a little less so in google reader but still much, much better than the !@#$%^&* black bar. Looking forward to the update!

  12. noob on June 29th, 2011 at 11:39 am #

    Do you think you could make one of these for https://www.google.com? I tried just editing the .js file but I have never used greasemonkey and I can only seem to generate errors.

    I use https:// because Google (so far) skips the annoying google-graphics there (I don’t really mind when they change the logo, but I am on a slow computer and the occasional animated logos cause problems.)

  13. Sick on June 30th, 2011 at 8:45 pm #

    The one in the article isn’t half as good as another greasemonkey extension I found that not only lets you keep the menu white, but actually lets you make it look how you want. Check it out here, really great! http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/105735

  14. Sarah on July 1st, 2011 at 1:24 pm #

    How do I remove the script I just installed to hide the black bar? I need the options on the top, and it has done something weird to my google, everything is out of line somehow!

    Do let me know!

  15. Urania on July 2nd, 2011 at 7:23 pm #

    I use Seamonkey browser. I am not very tech oriented. Will your script work for me? I am afraid to mess things up, but I hate that black bar. What were they thinking?
    Thanks a million for your help.

  16. Suzanne on July 3rd, 2011 at 12:32 pm #

    I got rid of the black bar by ditching google and using bing or ask.com as my go-to search engine. IMHO, when a vendor plows on ahead despite overwhelming user complaints, it’s time to change vendors.

    • jump ship on August 7th, 2011 at 11:00 am #

      Amen! Hated the blackbar. Switched to bing.com, not my first choice, but you do that when google arrogantly ignores you.

  17. doruk on July 3rd, 2011 at 11:22 pm #

    did i come to wrong place ? sorry but i need an invitation for google+ if you have one.Thank you in advance.

  18. dude73 on July 8th, 2011 at 5:59 pm #

    install a script to remove the black bar? Are you effin kidding me? First, as if it bugs anyone that much. Second, they will probably come out with something that lets you change it. Themes and what not. THIRD, as if i’m installing some dudes script! That’s how you F up your computer. Hey, the script could be flawless. It could also be crap or a virus. Anyway, blah blah. Script to disable it, too funny. I’m going to write a script that exterminates retards

  19. Mark Vin on July 22nd, 2011 at 12:09 pm #

    Google is successful because of the clean look. Can’t they understand that no one want a Google black bar? Are they trying to be a mix of http://www.yahoo.com and http://www.blackl.com/black-google.html ?
    The only nice work they could do would be to go back to the layout they had before they started filling it with all sorts of links.

  20. Dragon on August 1st, 2011 at 4:54 pm #

    This leaves this weird white space on the top of google for me and displaces the “about # results in # time” to be in the search box itself, over the search query.

  21. CuriousRobot on August 2nd, 2011 at 5:22 pm #

    Thank you for this script!!!

    I just have a quick bug to report. When I open a “word” document in Google docs, when I click in the window, it instead puts my cursor one line offset vertically from where I wanted it to be. So in my installation I currently added the line:

    // @exclude https://docs.google.com/document/*

    to the top of the file to fix this problem. It puts the black google bar back up at the top of my window, but at least I can edit the document properly.

    I haven’t tried the presentation but the spreadsheet *appears* to work…

  22. Maia on August 5th, 2011 at 12:42 pm #

    Google is starting to look like a child of http://www.yahoo.com and http://www.blackl.com/black-google.php. Black bar and lots of links on the sides.

    I always liked the simple white Google. Can’t understand the change.
    Thank you for the script, shame we have to use this things just to get rid of the annoying things they keep throwing at people.

  23. Mr. SCG on August 5th, 2011 at 8:35 pm #

    How to remove Google’s Black Navigation Bar:

    Many people complain about Googles Black Navigation Bar,
    When you use Google as your home page. I have spent hours
    On the Web for answers and nobody had one, until I figured,
    How to get rid of it. It is very simple. Don’t use Google.
    Use another Search Engine. Like Webcrawler, Yahoo, Lycos,
    Alta Vista etc. That is it! No Black Bar and Google looses
    A bunch of Money. I like Google but I don’t like that Black Bar.

    Mr. SCG

  24. Fabrizio on August 14th, 2011 at 5:37 am #

    there is a problem that gmail does not start the voice Setting of Gmail (and I have to disable the extension)

  25. Mia on August 19th, 2011 at 9:13 pm #

    There’s a great firefox extension “stylish” that gives you what ever style you like. For example:
    works for chrome too!! :)

    refined dark menu:
    http://userstyles.org/styles/49929

    white menu:
    http://userstyles.org/styles/49962/white-google-bar

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