A Chrome extension to restore Classic Google Images view

I came across a post on Reddit from someone asking for a Chrome extension.
Google Images had replaced its old horizontal rows with a masonry-style layout. The new view left awkward gaps, made portrait images dominate the screen and, for this particular user, made image search unpleasant enough that they had stopped using it.

They wanted the previous layout back. They also mentioned one specific requirement: it had to work with uBlacklist.
That was the whole brief.

At first, it sounded like a small CSS fix. Change the grid, set a consistent row height, package it as an extension and call it a day.
It was not quite that simple.

Google Images is a dynamic page. Results arrive while you scroll, parts of the interface are replaced without a traditional reload, and the useful full-resolution image URL is not always sitting in an obvious link. A layout that looks correct for the first twenty images can quietly fall apart after the next batch appears.

I also did not want the extension to rebuild Google’s interface or remove native elements from the page. That would make it fragile and more likely to conflict with extensions such as uBlacklist.

So Classic View works mostly through styling and structural detection. It identifies the image result grid, turns it back into justified horizontal rows and watches for new results as Google loads them. The original page remains underneath.

Once the basic layout worked, I added the smaller things I missed from older versions of Google Images: hover zoom, a direct View Image button, quick size filters and an option to hide related-search clutter.
There is a settings popup, but nothing requires an account or a server. Preferences are stored using Chrome’s own sync storage. The extension does not collect searches, browsing history or personal data.

A day earlier, this project did not exist. It was just a Reddit post from someone who did not want to “get used to” an interface they found worse.
Honestly, that was a good enough reason to build it.
Classic View for Google Images is now available in the Chrome Web Store. It's free.

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