You have to have a pretty eagle eye to spot this latest Google test, which seems to be tested on only a small number of users.  Google is testing a new shade of green for the URL line in the Google search results.

Binghamton Times was the first to notice the change, which was only seen while logged in.  When the same user logged out, it swapped back to the usual green color.

The green color they are testing is more of an olive shade of green as opposed to the bright green.  It does de-emphasize the URL slightly when the color isn’t as bright, and blends in better with the description snippet for each result.

This is pretty significant because while Google may change how they display the search results, they don’t often mess with the underlying aspects, such as the green URL color.

Here is a larger comparison of the two colors.  #006621 is the normal color.  #446600 is the new color they are testing.

I suspect Google wouldn’t be testing this slightly different color without a good reason and some kind of data that makes them think that this could perform better than the normal one they use.  I am sure we will also see some SEOs doing some of their own testing with this specific color in Google AdSense ad units too, and see if just this slight change really does make a difference in CTR or not.

This is a very limited test, but one that could have a big impact on how the search results look in the future.