The latest iteration of Google's experiment replaces your email address with your name and shows the photo from your Google Profile. Right now, creating a Google Profile is optional, but I wouldn't be surprised to see that this will change. If there's one thing that unifies almost all Google services, that's the navigation bar and it makes sense to add social features to the persistent bar.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9an3da_EsR1Zm8diwKOhZ4H4reFvevhBcX59GT8PCbsWTHYOvQmkT0-1JAgc1svg1AAyt2EQXVCrE8E_gCmm-cmCpw7ljZY-FyMNef0TLshxskaC8q049uv45ZkyPKaEzdysjHEN4VpiI/s640/google-homepage-test-feb2011.png)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinFB2b7S50TaDHSnNVFtTohnOn0SuxX3tPz_FB0DqlPk0jIfIQUTq0WSzSxrhoyEHpokLJMQ84QpxZ4koG-C2tb8mzjCwGxkGph1Z58t9q4gikNzzuprvI2TMFbVVNpoA2isPpa3oPrez_/s640/google-homepage-test-feb2011-2.png)
{ Thanks, Aaron and Ameet. }