Google Docs' New Look: What's the Point?

If Google Docs' new look added useful new functionality, such as allowing the user to see the size or modification time of a file, and not just the modification date, I would switch to it. But all it does is replace words with ideograms, which is a step backwards. Rather than just clicking on what one wants, the apparent mindset is that we would rather hover over controls seeing what the heck each is.

Sure, learning the obscure symbols will not take long, but why bother? There are very likely simple words for each of these controls in any language Google Docs supports, and most people using Google Docs can likely read simple words.

This is just a pointless step backwards.