Google’s new favicon
When you are a large multinational company like Google, the slightest changes in your identity will quickly be noticed. A few week ago, the big capital “G” that was used as a favicon on every google site turned into an ugly lower-case “g”. That tiny event gave birth to tons of reactions on blogs or on twitter (did anyone say buzz?), people obviously didn’t seem to like the new favicon.
A few days ago, Google’s reaction appeared on the Official Google Blog, Marissa Mayer explains that the current favicon is part of an ongoing design process that seems to have been painful (that’s how I translate rigorous and interesting).
In the image above, you can see some tests looking for the new icon, I am not a big fan of any of those. Anyway if you want to submit your ideas to Google, your suggestions are warmly welcomed. However don’t forget to read the terms of service in case you did something great.
You acknowledge that you have submitted your design voluntarily and not in confidence or in trust. You acknowledge that no confidential, fiduciary, agency or other relationship or implied-in-fact contract now exists between you and Google and that no such relationship is established by your submission of a design under these Terms.
Popularity: 4% [?]
I don’t like the lowercase ‘g’ much myself for Google. I’m too used to upper-case, I guess. I would have gone with the upper-case G in white color with blue background.
As much as i dont like the new logo myself … Its partially bcause im so used to the previous one.. making it synonymous to google.. it’ll probably take time.. but we ‘ll get to appreciate the creativity of the google team soon.
@Eric using a letter from within the word instead of using the first one doesn’t really feel right, especially when it looks strange typographically
@Anthony you are right, maybe we are too used to the old favicon, let’s give it some time. But I still doubt that I will like it in the future…
Although I agree that the Capital G is more easily identifiable (as the first letter in Google), I also think it is too generic.
Capital G’s are fairly common as they are seen a lot more often. I believe that the lower case g over time will become more closely associated with the Google brand and be uniquely their own (isn’t that the point)? Looking at the options, I think they made a good choice!
@Christine: I don’t really see who else is using a capital G. Anyway the low-case g looks ok on blue background, most people have been reacting so far on the favicon version with white background. It’ll be interesting to read these comments in a few months, after we got used to it.