Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes: Or, Google is Making Me Pull My Hair Out!

Do I sound like I'm contradicting myself yet? Maybe so...but it's all because Google keeps changing up stuff, and today, it's really driving me batty!

I wrote back in May about Google being sort of "big brother"-ish with personalized searches. You can read my thoughts on why I see this as a problem (portraying Google as the devil), and you can also read about an instance where Google search tools really worked for me (portraying Google as an angel).

Then, just yesterday, I wrote about Google as a company, trying to compete with big contenders such as Facebook and Apple (others were mentioned in the article referenced in my post).

But today is a whole new story. Recently, Google has been making quite a few facelift changes, all right around the time of the Google Plus roll out. The changes seemed to work (except for my integrated g-mail extension not playing nice with the new calendar), but today brought with it the revelation of a few changes that I am not too thrilled about.

For my information literacy course that I teach, there is an entire week of brainstorming topics with concept maps (partially Google-ified) and an entire week of web searching (heavily Google-ified).

The tools that I point out to students each quarter include:
* Google Books
* Google Scholar
* Google News
* Advanced Search Options
* Any Time Date Ranges
* Timeline
* Related Searches
* Realtime

And my beloved Google Wonder Wheel. Students LOVE (I mean... L.O.V.E.) this tool! It's one thing to take them to the Credo Reference Concept Map, but it's an entirely different matter to take them to a tool that allows them to learn something new within a system they are already used to using.
So, you can imagine my reaction when I learned that the Google Wonder Wheel is gone! Yep...that's right - gone . vamoose . nadda [enter very sad face and utter dissatisfaction here].




When we Google now, all we get are the options to the right:
* Google Books
* Google Scholar
* Google News
And in the More Search Tools area,
* Related Searches
* Timeline
* Reading Level (not sure this is useful for my needs)

And folks... that's it! No more Google Wonder Wheel... no more Realtime... It's really quite sad, and it seems like really useful tools are being cut without any warning!

So, with thanks to Search Engine Land, this seems to be the progression that Google has taken:

• Google Begins Multi-Month User Experience Update
  I love this quote that states, "I imagine most people think that whatever links are listed there are the only options available." This is so very true for my students. They just don't have the skills yet that tell them to dig a little deeper! So is Google really creating a user-friendly interface for the mass population of internet users?
• Google Realtime Search Goes Missing
  This is one that I really enjoyed using for showing primary source material.
  
• As Deal with Twitter Expires, Google Realtime Search Goes Offline
  This is the update to the above posting. I like that they are trying to reinvent this option to include multiple content avenues outside of Twitter. This could be a good thing in the long run, but it's coming at a really crappy time.
• Official: The Google Wonder Wheel is Gone
  And finally, the post that makes me the most sad. I really can't say it enough - I am truly going to miss this concept mapping tool...and I'm not sure what alternative I will use.
  

I'm sure there are more changes coming down the pike, but the one's referenced here are those that will impact me right now. I have 4 days to find an alternative to the Google Wonder Wheel and 2 weeks to revamp my web searching lesson plan. If you have ideas...please share them (and in reality, I could have used the time it took me to write this post searching for alternatives)!

I would also like to know how the Google changes are affecting you and your work, so don't be shy...