Google Search links appear in orange text for some users

Andrew Romero | Nov 13 2024 - 9:31 am PT

Google looks to be testing a new color scheme for Google Search in the native app and in Chrome. Google’s links are appearing orange for more users, instead of the blue color that we’ve grown accustomed to for years. This new scheme seems to be in testing rather than a full-fledged rollout.

Google has not been a stranger to changing things up, hitting every edge of the color wheel with Material You integration and dynamic theming across Android devices. Google’s apps, specifically, have taken on a much cleaner look in the last few years and are easier to use because of it.

In a strange departure, Google Search has apparently changed its default appearance for some in what appears to be a test. Users have been seeing links highlighted in an orange-brown tone lately instead of blue through both the Google Search app and Chrome as of late, but a post on Reddit shows that more users are seeing the change as of the past day or two.

This is a strange one, as it doesn’t seem like the app or Google website in Chrome has taken on any dynamic theming unless every single user that sees it is using a burnt orange Chrome theme. The change is also appearing on mobile, where Google Chrome theming doesn’t come into play. Even Material You has no apparent effect on link color.

The users that have reported seeing Google’s new orange links are also all seemingly using dark mode on their Android and iOS devices, which could indicate that Google is toying with a new, more eye-friendly linking color in the OS scheme. In that instance, this change would make a lot more sense, as the hue is a little more pleasing to look at than the harsher blue in light mode.

As this is a Google experiment, there likely is no “fix.” The only way to possibly change these links back to blue is by signing out or even switching to light mode if that is indeed how it is triggered. This test has not been seen on any of our devices at 9to5Google.

It’s unknown if Google plans on rolling this out fully since a minority of users are seeing the change, though that number seems to be growing.