Evolution of Web search engine interfaces through SERP screenshots and HTML complete pages for 20 years

Each capture is represented by a screenshot, an HTML file, and a files' folder. We concatenate the initial of the search engine (G) with the capture's timestamp for file naming. The filename ends with a sequential integer "-N" if the timestamp is repeated.

For example, "G20070330145203-1" identifies a second capture from Google by March 30, 2007. The first is identified by "G20070330145203". Using this dataset, we analyzed how SERP evolved in terms of content, layout, design (e.g., color scheme, text styling, graphics), navigation, and file size.

We have registered the appearance of SERP features and analyzed the design patterns involved in each SERP component. We found that the number of elements in SERP has been rising over the years, demanding a more extensive interface area and larger files. This systematic analysis portrays evolution trends in search engine user interfaces and, more generally, web design.

We expect this work will trigger other, more specific studies that can take advantage of the dataset we provide here. This graphic represents the diversity of captures by year and search engine (Google and Bing).