What happened to the links at the top of Google? ("Web, Images, Videos, Maps, News")

Earlier this year, Google ( www.google.com) made a “design improvement” by hiding these links until you moved you moved your mouse a bit. Then they’d appear. It was done to make for a “cleaner look” to their website. It was fine, though, long as it works.

But now those links aren’t even there! (As of today).

Is this a case of Ajax/Javascript not working as planned (as always… stupid web designers)

Or did one of Google’s engineers make a stupid mistake today eliminating those links?

Or was this done on purpose?

(To see how the links look, you can still go to www.google.ca , the Canadian version still has ‘em).

So what’s going on with Google?

And if it’s a Javascript/Ajax issue… that brings up the subject of why do web designers insert such stupid crap when not necessary? I really do mean unnecessary. On some sites, it is necessary, but certainly not in Google, Youtube, Myspace, and all the other big ones, where it is just used for a gooey page-clean effect, and is always full of errors.