I think the title is misleading. If I'm not mistaken it's not actual infinite scrolling, the only change is the search bar and search tools remain in a fixed position. It's a nice change.
>The new interface seems to set the stage for a fluid design that removes pagination and replaces it with infinite scrolling.
The key phrase in the article is "setting the stage". Google hasn't switched to infinite scroll yet, but with a fixed header it seems most likely for them to do so soon.
I haven't seen it in action, but from what I saw in the video, it was actual infinite scrolling - the pagination controls got replaced with 'second page' content after scrolling down.
My guess is that the pagination controls are there to accomodate people with JavaScript disabled.
The key phrase in the article is "setting the stage". Google hasn't switched to infinite scroll yet, but with a fixed header it seems most likely for them to do so soon.