Hm.

Is it so hard to imagine someone could have a different opinion than you?

All of your examples are factual claims which I don't dispute. (well, assuming "instant results" is branding for "submits the query every time you hit a key, modulo some debouncing" -- not actually instant in practice). I disagree with their value, though. I noticed both of those changes, because stuff stopped working for me. The only change I've seen from Instant Results(tm) is that now sometimes when I'm scrolling through the search results, they'll all disappear and I need to type some more letters in the search box then remove them. Luckily you can avoid that by using the browser's search box instead of the website. On YouTube I had an issue for a while where leaving fullscreen after changing video would cause the page to reload, interrupting playback for 2-3 seconds. I believe that's mostly fixed now, bringing the functionality back up to par with the original implementation.

Maybe I'm just a hipster, but I like my computer to do what I tell it, not what some random web designer overly enamoured of his own "blog application" tells it. Most of the time, I want a document, not a portal or an experience. In that sense, I don't think anyone wants to go back to the web we had, so much as sideways to a better future.

EDIT: Forgot Facebook. Don't use it. Can't say. But the users sure seem pleased with the constant evolution of the UI.

>>> Is it so hard to imagine someone could have a different opinion than you?

It's not hard at all. I'm not in denial, I've read the original article even top to bottom. I know people like this exist. I just don't think it has any relevance today.

>>> not actually instant in practice

Don't take it so literal. The feature is called Google Instant. That's the name.

>>> I believe that's mostly fixed now, bringing the functionality back up to par with the original implementation.

Your argument is... that there are bugs? Yeah, nice one.

>>> Most of the time, I want a document, not a portal or an experience.

In which case, a document should be given to you.

But Google, Facebook, Youtube and many others including "blogging applications" do not offer documents. They are dynamically generated for you, client or server side.

>>> But the users sure seem pleased with the constant evolution of the UI.

I'm pretty sure they would be less happy if Facebook delivered simple documents with no styles attached. And I don't think they hate it as much as they say they do, as Facebook is still actively used.