Generally when a site changes its favicon (the tiny image that typically appears next to the URL in your browser) nobody really notices or cares. Unless you’re Google.
Back in June the company unveiled a brand new stylized ‘g’ icon with a blue background. It was sleek, but a big departure from the classic G logo that everyone was familiar with. The blue icon made appearances elsewhere, too, and can now be seen on the Google iPhone Mobile App.
Now it looks like the company has switched again, this time to a logo that incorporates the same stylized lowercase g, but one that also includes the company’s classic yellow/blue/green/red color scheme.
Marrisa Mayer, the company’s Vice President, Search Products & User Experience had this to say last time the company made a change:
“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.”
Mayer also noted in the same blog post that the blue logo wasn’t necessarily the one Google would settle on, so today’s change isn’t much of a surprise:
“By no means is the one you’re seeing our favicon final; it was a first step to a more
unified set of icons.”
Google’s current set of logos (up until today) can be seen below. No word on whether today’s change is indicative of any upcoming changes for the whole suite of logos:
Google has developed hundreds of possible favicons that have never been implemented, sprawling many different styles. Here’s a sampling that they shared last June:
Thanks to Brian van Veen for the tip.
So now we get Favicon coverage in TC! What next?
Agree – as if it matters…
If everything goes right, we’ll see FaviconCrunch in no time.
Probably the worst post ever. Anyone got any worse than this?
Number one
very good google favicon 
http://kisalt.us/590/
Wah…wah…wah?
Yep this is the state of art in journalism nowadays. Maybe TC reporters should now stand outside sergei’s / larry’s office and report when they walked out to pee!
Absolute rubbish.
I like the post. Good thing this is covered.
It surely matters for web designers. Period.
That’s cute. I don’t like this new favicon though, because I can hardly see the lowercase G.
This might also eman the Firefox developers will have to commit a new change regarding the search bar… if they still can.
U can change the search bar icon in FF by yourself.
Take a minute or so.
Everyone likes a little color, but that’s barely legible.
Agreed it looks more like an 8 then a g.
Hmmm
this looks like guruji dot com logo
You’re right! LOL
I agree!!! it’s just like that one but guruji’s is smaller.
I actually didn’t even notice the lowercase ‘g’ until i read further on in the article. All the colors really drown out the white ‘g’. It’s nice though. I’m a big fan of colors.
I like the new favicon though it’s a harder to read the g, the colors are a nice touch.
I’m not seeing this new favicon. And, it looks like their favicon file is still the same (here).
Refresh your cache (Ctrl + R or Cmd + R).
It’s in beta therefore being rolled out slowly
Wow…you noticed a Beta next to the ‘g’
Too much green…
The previous icon was better, really.
Wow. Interesting…welllll, it is colorful I guess.
I think it’s cute. And ironic that it must have been in the works prior to all the head-count cuts.
I don’t like this new one. I think it’s ugly and garish, not at all streamlined like the previous one, or like I think represents google.com as a whole. This is more like something you’d see from .. msn .. only uglier still.
“but one that also includes the company’s classic yellow/blue/green/red color scheme.”
You mean Microsoft colors, right?
Is it just a coincidence or does the logo have all the colors of the Microsoft Windows logo, in the same order, except the colors were rotated clockwise by one square? Go compare for yourself.
Still wondering what’s wrong with the big G …
And ironic thing is, Chrome doesn’t have favicons
Chrome does show favicons.
Barf… The icon is garish. A lot of people theought the simple g was boring. However, it was simple and elegant and passed a very important test for a favicon: You could clearly identify even it at its small size. All you see is a mish mash of garish colors in the new one. You can’t even make out the g.
There’s only 3 primary and 3 secondary colors, and they are the colors with the strongest visual impact.
I doubt even Microsoft is capable of patenting the basic color palette for their own exclusive use.
We have dibs on the color green.
I did not like the lowercase ‘g’ in the first place. It just doesn’t link with the Google brand where they always use an uppercase ‘G’. This color thing reminds reminds me of the 80’s.
Some people say they don’t notice the favicon, but I use Google products every single day for my work, and I’m pretty disrupted if they suddenly change the icon. For me it’s like changing the Windows flag on the ‘Start’ button. I don’t think a favicon should be more colourful then the website and I hope Google will go back to something more subtle very soon. But, I’m sure I will get used to this one in a few days, so I guess it’s ok even though it’s ugly and distracting.
Now back to the more important things in life. Coffee.
why TC is giving important to change in favicon ? Because its Google ?
Bingo.
Looks like a multicolored duck to me… big red beak, blue eye and yellow wing.
Haha. You win.
Hahah.. You are right… Nice observation..
It’s much much better than the blue g.
Suspiciously similar to the old MSFT Office logo:
http://dreamfle...ffice2klogo.jpg
Nice Favicon!
I like it. Looks pretty neat to me.
why does google and ebay copied Microsoft’s colors?
I learned a new word today!!
“Favicon”
I don’t see any improvement from the old. The blue g was easier to recognize and simpler, which is google’s usual approach.
Yeah, it’s colorful alright. I noticed it recently. Are they going to keep changing it like they change it so often for holidays? Now that would be interesting.
Hey TechCrunch – do you think you could fix your Favicon so that it shows up correctly in the feeds section of my Blackberry WSJ Mobile Reader? Yours is one of the few feeds whose favicon is blank. Even ValleyWag and GeekDad show up fine…
I’ll disagree with virtually everyone but Jason — this is a story worth covering. The four color “Windows pane” echo is really, really weird – the designers couldn’t possibly have missed this (yes, even though they were probably using Macs). question is why – was it a lack of creativity or simply to tweak msft?
In the PC v. Mac world you have two distinct aesthetics which have in some ways come to trump all else. As goog defends its monopoly of user habit against msft and as they face off on other fronts how they position their brands and imagery is going to be a big part of the story. Even a dopey little favicon might come to mean something if it’s extending to mobile and TV…
Um… looks like a game of Uno.
Oh, it has a ‘g’ in it? I hadn’t noticed…. which could be a problem for Google…
Great post.
Perhaps I’ve been poisoned by the simplicity of web 2.0 styling, but I think it looks very ugly. Looks like blobs of paint strewn about randomly.
Why come they don’t have a Yo G favicon?
this is news?
Who cares about favicons? anyway just for the heck of this post, the new one looks ugly with all bloated coloring effect… Google is known to be clean UI…
Ugly. The old style was better.
I really like the new favicon. It’s colorful! Maybe they should change their logo!
this post is not stupid – you dumb ass -
i found this post because i thought my system was hacked!!!!! Seeing a strange icon and all… i thought it was a dog paw lol… so kudos for the one that post this – makes my system feel more secure knowing that this is indeed google responsibility and not some russian hacker somewhere re routing are servers -
Its aight. Couldn’t see the g at first but it looks good. They’ll probably change it in a few months.
OMG this favicon is going to touch so much lives out there. Tech Crunch, I applaud you and you’re outstanding reporting. Dow Jones fell 143 points today and the economy is getting worse everyday, but who gives a fuck, cause google has a new favicon, right? Thanks for reporting on the stuff that actually MATTERS.
It’s funny that a company with probably the most recognized name in the world is putting so much effort into branding of virtually no consequence. Seriously, how many people pay any mind to a favicon? Sure you see it, but you don’t really care.
You have to wonder how many marketing dollars are wasted on something like this? How many focus groups did they hold?
Quite a waste of effort in my opinion. As someone above mentioned, I think Guruji would have a good trademark infringement claim against them. Then, they could waste even more money defending it, losing and buying out Guruji just to save face and keep the favicon.
And in other breaking news : A typo
“… wasn’t necessarily the *would* [one] Google would…”
First I thought that Google is celebrating some south African event but then i thought wtf :s
The previous one is far more better than this
—————
http://www.link...om/linkbuilding
I’ve noticed this too. It’s awesome and so much better than the old one.
Seems like everyone now a days is going after a more colorful look !
That thing is fugly
wow. big news -_-
wow. big news -_-
and its colorful and confusing. it took me almost half a minute to figure out that there was a “g” in the favicon.