Everyone loves our new desktop web search design so much – the one with ads that look like links

Google is under fire this week for rolling out a new design for its desktop web search results in which advertisements and normal links look almost the same.

At a glance, the ads do not look distinct from the organic results, causing many observers, such as The Graun's technology editor Alex Hern, to note “there is now no visual distinction between ads and results … it’s hard to escape the conclusion that it is supposed to be difficult to spot at a glance where the adverts end.”