It definitely match the material design, however I feel like inside box shadow is appropriate for inputs. This looks like a dropdown. But that's for another discussion. Anyway, I like the consistency it's heading to.

Serious question: Are people still going to Google's home page to perform searches? Why not search right within the browser?

I saw that too. It's nice but the don't have much other material design style like sliding and bouncing up the search box to reveal search results.

Cool. I like the elevation of the shadow on hover. I wish google would invest more design into the search page, it could be a lot less boring. On the other hand it still gets the job done, so why fix what isn't broken.

I recently made some experimental google inspired search bars, in Sketch, AI, and XD formats. Free download if anybody wants it - https://dribbble.com/shots/3108575-Google-Inspired-Search-Bar-UI-Design

I like the new design as the highlighting helps to quickly establish a focus.

my old google account has the old bar. My new google account has had this search bar for about 4 months now I believe

That's the one I've got, and it it's so much better looking.

I’ve had the new search bar for a while. It fits in much better with the other Material interfaces, and the removal of the big blue square "search" button really helps reduce visual distraction. The header bar is about 50% taller too, which feels super spacious and comfortable to use.

Jup, looks like it. https://d.pr/fXWq

It looks good!