Recently people have been noticing that the Google favicon, the small icon in your browser’s address bar when you visit a Google site, has changed from the familiar upper-case G to a lower-case one. Google has not changed this design in over eight years, so the change caused speculation that more design changes might be afoot. Well, it turns out that the new Favicon is part of a new family of icons Google has designed for use in different situations, from its logo to the browser favicon to mobile applications. Marissa Mayer explains on the Google Blog:
The reason is that we wanted to develop a set of icons that would scale better to some new platforms like the iPhone and other mobile devices. So the new favicon is one of those, but we’ve also developed a group of logo-based icons that all hang together as a unified set.
Above are some of the different candidates out of the hundreds that Google tried out. And below are the current five. I’m just glad Google didn’t go with the rainbow theme. It would have been way too unicorn. The favicon could still change and Google is looking for feedback as the design process keeps on evolving. Maybe it should try a crowdsourcing approach/contest to coming up with the new icon, and allow people to actually submit their own entries.
The fourth one looks best according to me.
Hmm. I find the new small caps G pretty fresh. Though it made a tiny bit of difference as I’d only found out about that until you mentioned it.
may you help me promote my site: http://www.newsendorser.com upload your videos, be a member and invite friends. your help means a lot to us! Thanks!!! this is not a spam.
Not so sure I like the little g. It would have been pretty baller if they just went with the first one.
Looks like an infinity symbol. Google… ad infinitum
MM…we are changing the world by giving you shiny Favicons and apps that look&feel like the 90’s!
Google is trying a crowdsourcing approach. Their favicon feedback page allows anyone to submit an icon ideas to Google.
http://www.google.com/faviconideas/
“has changed from teh familiar upper-case G to a”
small typo
Newsendorser - not a spam…love it. Why do you guys not delete this crap?
hey techcrunch are you guys gonna change your favicon to “tc” instead of “TC” so it, you know, “scales better to new platforms?”
yes i notice that icon
yes you are right
the favicon is very cool ….. its always nice to have a change ….
Google - Can I have your OLD favicon please?
Jim Connolly
http://www.thetechnewsblog.com
Wow, Google has a design team? (according to Marissa’s post). News to me.
With the kind of (lack of) designs that they use, I think a 14 year old could do better (and no, I’m 16
)
But the variations look good. I’d go with the blue rounded icon with white “g” - not only does it look good in large sizes and favicons, it will also blend well for iPhone/iTouch etc.
Don’t like it. Don’t care if that makes me sound old and crotchety.
Little g looks puny and weak. Big G looks ominous and foreboding and better represents Google’s ambitions of world dominance.
yawn…
Too unicorn indeed - although if they went with the rainbow perhaps they would drop confetti from the top of the page as well?
All three of us noticed it at the office this week. There was an all out approval that the ‘g’ emoticon of Google was pleasing but inappropriate, one thought it was an 8.
Coming to a News Station near you…… GOOGLE TAKES OVER THE WORLD!!!
JT
http://www.FIreMe.To/Udi
I agree that there is nothing wrong with freshening up once in a while. However, the little ‘g’ does indeed scream weakness. They really should have at least stuck with an uppercase ‘G’.
Oh Joseph, what an exciting office you work in
My god, please stop talking about this crud, move on
It’s rubbish! A uniform company image means always using the Google logo. Adding another logo that barely looks like a g distracts from the unity of the brand. I personally think they should remove it at once, apologise to the poor users whose design tastes have been offended and forget the whole thing.
Did they hire a design team who have never even seen the Google logo? That might explain it!
Is this even worth talking about? sheesh..get a life!
I personally constantly mistake it for a capitol “S” now rather than a lowercase “g”. I really dislike it. But then again, I am a 20-something on the internet.
I am baffled how this gathered so much attention. Mashable, SearchEngineLand and now Techcrunch leading today with the “favicon” of the day Google trotted out.
I’m more concerned they disregarded Memorial Day, now D-Day in favor of long dead, never appreciated German architects and the painter Diego.
Huh?
It’s interesting everyone gives a crap about the little “favicon” though.
May be they r no more Google but a company that “googles”
Wow, those are horrible for the most part. I’m getting used to the small “g” and it’s definitely the best choice, given the options.
reminds me of a turned “infinity” symbol and part of a double helix.
Coincidence?
New favicon’s very cool! I like it.
not only is it ridiculous that you wrote a post about this, it’s stunning that they couldn’t just say “yea, we wanted a new icon, that’s all” and instead actually had to come up with some marketing/wall-street-worthy-bull about scaling to other platforms.
idiots all around.
I don’t like the new favicon - I cannot pinpoint it, maybe it’s the colors, but it seems very Geocities/tripod/Kmart looking. The classic G is tight.
At first I mistaken the small ‘g’ with the number 8.
At the end of the day, they will go with capital ‘G’ I guess.
I hate the new fav icon
That’s what happens when there’s too much time to play.
looks like a sloppy 8 on my address bar and link toolbar. I think the old G scaled well.
This is not news.
All the designs google comes up with are crap. So what’s the point of crowdsorcing? Choose the least bad one?
I’m not a fan of it either. It doesn’t say “Google” to me. I look at it in my tab and wonder what I have open. If they want to re-brand their logo, they need to start somewhere else.
Of course, I say “if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.”
Google is very dynamic. This small favicon is one such example.
TechCrunch is becoming Google’s mouthpiece. Even a small sneeze at Google got coverage at TechCrunch. I seriously wan’t to understand the purpose of TC. Are they committed to serve emerging technology news? Is this news article fit to their mission statement?
Google, these days I find more putting money into publicity and less into Innovation. And yes they get new technologies by killing other small companies - Acquiring them. You see Money power, for which you all were hating MicroSoft.
Maybe they should have customers submit ideas and vote on internal and external logos, like Salesforce.com does for it’s logos on IdeaExchange.
It’s an obvious play on the infinity sign, with the g as a figure 8. It’s nice if a little worrying to know that the G is forever, like diamonds, taking over everything.
Sometimes changes is good. I like this new icon.
When Google was small, the capital G symbolized strength.
Now that they’re big and some are afraid of their power, the lower case “g” is a goog choice. Marketing is a psychology science.
And AdSense is down…. Given that it costs Amazon few million dollars/hour downtime, I wonder how much it is costing Google?
When will this honeymoon with google end?????????? Every other article about google is a non-story.
The new favico sucks big time, I once had these multiple search tabs open and they looked like crap. Count my vote for bringing back the old favico !
Techcrunch also needs a new favico .. the current one looks too amateurish