January 9, 2009

New Google Favicon

Google changed its favicon last year and many people said that the new one was ugly. Probably this the reason why Google decided to use another favicon starting from today. The new favicon uses all the colors from Google's logo, while keeping the same lowercase "g".

Marissa Mayer's description from last year is very appropriate. "We wanted something distinctive and noticeable (...). We wanted something that embraced the colorfulness of the logo, yet wouldn't date itself." Adam Howard, a reader of this blog, thinks that the new favicon "looks like a mini paint-by-numbers".

Here are all the three Google favicons, starting with the new one, followed by the simple favicon added last year and the initial Google favicon, which is still my favorite:



Update: Marissa Mayer tells the story of the new favicon:

"Back in June, we rolled out a new favicon — the small icon that greets you when you access Google on your URL bar or your bookmarks list — and we encouraged our users to submit their ideas for this important piece of Google branding. We were impressed by the volume of submissions we received, and today we are happy to introduce a new Google favicon inspired by those submissions by our users. AndrĂ© Resende, a computer science undergraduate student at the University of Campinas in Brazil, submitted the design that inspired our new favicon: . His placement of a white 'g' on a color-blocked background was highly recognizable and attractive, while seeming to capture the essence of Google."

{ Thanks, Daniel, John and Adam. }

348 comments:

  1. not much of an improvement....

    CM

    ReplyDelete
  2. Seriously, can't they just leave it alone- it was fine before.
    I hope they don't make this stick for all Google sites bookmarked - I live by individual favicons in my bookmarks toolbar!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. You make me note one thing, Chrome doesn't show favicon.

    ReplyDelete
  4. yes it does, top corner of the tab, not the address bar.

    ReplyDelete
  5. If you don't see the new favicon:

    A: your browser cached the old one - use Ctrl+F5 to reload it
    B: you hit a Google data center that didn't update the favicon

    ReplyDelete
  6. I have to agree with comment #2 - I still like the old capitalized "G" the best...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Agreed start thinking google is trying too prove something to other

    ReplyDelete
  8. Definitely agree with comment 2 and 6.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I loooove it it's so much better than favicon number two which was just a plain ugly blue g now its colorful and it has a very interesting shape :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Way better than the last one.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I like it- undeniably an improvement over the last one, and I personally think it's even better than the first one. It's bright and happy.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I liked the blue g. The big G was good too, but only without the colored border. I like the new one too.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Why the new favicon is illustrated in Firefox browser, when below there is Chrome ad?

    ReplyDelete
  14. The "g" is not so distinct and visible as in the previous ones. It doesn't matter anyway, because the Google applications have their own favicons.

    ReplyDelete
  15. ohh.. this is the new favicon! I haven't seen it yet.. :D mine was still the small g.. :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. Is it me or Google Chrome doesn't show favicons!?

    ReplyDelete
  17. Ugh. Just noticed this. I hate it. Asked a coworker what he thought, he didn't even realize there was a 'g' there, he thought it was just a blob.

    It's a real pity, because some of the prospective designs they had last year (see this post: http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/05/new-google-favicon.html ) were really good, like the 'folded triangle', 'uppercase G in a blue block', and the 'swoosh' designs (#1 and #3 if you start from the top left row)

    ReplyDelete
  18. I don't like the new favicon...the Big G favicon was best

    ReplyDelete
  19. This one is ugly the one the had just before was far better

    ReplyDelete
  20. Ugh, way too much! Bring back the simple blue 'g' favicon.

    ReplyDelete
  21. argh.... it's the same 4 colors of the windows start button...

    ReplyDelete
  22. It's ugly, and the g is not in emphasis...
    The first one was definitively the best so far!

    ReplyDelete
  23. I still like the bug G the most.

    ReplyDelete
  24. lol It's funny, I dont know why people didn't like that last favicon, but this favicon is what I direct all those comments from the last favicon to.

    The last favicon was fine. Hate this one.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Yep -- capital G was the best. I like this one the least. Google, for all its glory, seems to fail at graphic design with some regularity.

    ReplyDelete
  26. I like the new favicon. I like the colors but yet I like how the 'g' stands out.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Original G > Colourful g > Blue g
    Fair enough, the G was looking a tad dated, but this new g isn't recognisable enough. Probably doesn't help that Google doesn't have a logo as such, just a specifically fonted/coloured word. Ho hum

    ReplyDelete
  28. This is a bad favicon. Previous was better, but bad too. Maybe... You need to make your first favicon better... I think, the FLAT style of icons is not so beautiful))

    ReplyDelete
  29. The old big Google-G was the best

    ReplyDelete
  30. I love previous version of icon... New icon is very colourful and cartoon... It's not serious for company like Google...

    ReplyDelete
  31. The old big Google-G was the best

    ReplyDelete
  32. Ditto - I'm used to the big Google-G. Are they trying to be like Micro$oft?

    ReplyDelete
  33. supongo que es una broma... or a bad joke?

    ReplyDelete
  34. And I thought IE8 had overwritten Google's favicon with a different site's favicon.

    Just as I was getting used to the new/old favicon comes this awful version.

    DO NOT WANT!!1!

    ReplyDelete
  35. I like it. It's more distinct and easier to find in your tabs.

    ReplyDelete
  36. That's a "G"? Looks like a sickly musical note.

    ReplyDelete
  37. I find it ugly. I Prefer the big G which is the same as the google homepage.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Ugly! The lower case blue "g" was fine.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Looks like a paw from a bear who stepped into a paint bucket. What a way to dilute your brand image.

    ReplyDelete
  40. I just realized, that the white lines in it should be a "g"?!!
    To me it appears a little bit too childish not really matching Google, which is an "adult" company knuckeling down to lobbies and political systems.
    A child free in mind wouldn't do that - except to his parents.

    Ups did I get too political? OK it's only a favicon... only 16x16 pixels, there are other things in this world to worry about!

    ReplyDelete
  41. does Google employ designers?

    ReplyDelete
  42. Stupid move.

    The blue 'g' was perfect and very googley - simply, effective, recognisable, people just got unhappy about it because it was new and different.

    This new thing, it's too complicated, too many colours, too busy - looks like some 1970s wall paper.

    Basically, Google pandered too early to the unhappiness, then LONG AFTER anyone cared any more, they've now changed it and messed it up.

    Most stupid move I've seen Google make for a while.

    ReplyDelete
  43. Improvement over the last iteration, although they could have just left the original G in the square as-is. This one does stand out better among the dozen other favicons currently showing on my browser tabs.

    ReplyDelete
  44. BRING BACK THE "G"!

    ReplyDelete
  45. I like it.....I like it a lot !

    ReplyDelete
  46. I thought i go to wrong site when i log to gmail.com, nice favion, really colorful

    ReplyDelete
  47. Noticed it right away - cudo's to the artist, looks kinda like a tiny stained glass window, very nice.

    ReplyDelete
  48. i think it looks great, the old one was just boring

    ReplyDelete
  49. have to admit I think the original one sent by André is much better because the g is in the middle and is incredibly clear when comparing it to the one they made. Having the g off centre without a colour to separate it from the address bar/tab bar where it's displayed was a big mistake.

    With all that said, I see nothing wrong with Lucian E. Marin's effort. Maybe the same thinking can apply to that one, which is extend the corner colours along the edges (1px wide) so that it actually creates a thin border, just like Google's first favicon. You might say that's like the first of the other efforts (Hadi Onur Demirsoy's) but I REALLY prefer the big G ...

    It's Google, not google ... It's even got a big G on their business cards ffs

    ReplyDelete
  50. I like this one much better then the lowercase 'g' on solid white.

    ReplyDelete
  51. Omg, people asked for more color and a new design that is eye catching,
    Now they made it that way, people are complaining about it.

    Wow, it is true, 90% of the world is full of idiots.

    I believe the design looks alright, it has a very retro feel to it.

    ReplyDelete
  52. lol I read the top part of this on my feeded,, and i just had to come on to read the comments cause I knew they would be funny

    Google this new icon sucks really bad, The first 1 was great! I endured the 2nd 1, this 1 is crap.

    Bring back the first 1 and stop playing around for media attention

    ReplyDelete
  53. New design is no thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  54. Urgh, it's hideous, no thanks google.

    ReplyDelete
  55. What was wrong with the first one?

    ReplyDelete
  56. What is worst, the the student's design proposal was far better than the final version that they decided to use. :-/

    ReplyDelete
  57. This is nearly worse than the London Olympics logo.

    Little g > Big G > not using any google sites anymore > colofrul win-blob g

    ReplyDelete
  58. At first, I just thought the new google favicon was a few random blobs of colour.

    After about 20 minutes (ok, I was really slow on this), I eventually realised the "g" is white... with a colourful background.

    What do I think? I don't like it.

    Its a clever use of colours, but when it come to branding and marketing use the "Keep It Simple, Stupid" principle...

    Just look at the golden arches for Maccas... they won't be changing that in a hurry!

    ReplyDelete
  59. The design is remarkably fresh. I think everyone has a nasty taste in their mouth for google. It's not the icon, it's the company's image that is bothering you. Anyone with any significant experience in web design will realize this is a masterful piece.

    ReplyDelete
  60. have to agree with #74

    ReplyDelete
  61. It's the windows flag logo colors rotated by one. WTF?

    ReplyDelete
  62. Same for me, I had to read this to figure out the white was the 'g'. Looked like a blob of shapes and colors. The white g could have been centered like the submission. I liked the first two.

    ReplyDelete
  63. I don't like the new favicon...the Big G favicon was best

    ;)

    ReplyDelete
  64. Too funny.. a brand spanking new favicon, and Google's own browser won't display it. Brilliant!

    ReplyDelete
  65. I don't like it. It's way too distracting in the tab bar.

    ReplyDelete
  66. I like it, however at home I use Firefox on Ubuntu and it displays the blue lowercase favicon. This afternoon at work (XP) it showed the new multicolor one.
    Did they changed it back or is it because of the OS? Is the same google account.

    ReplyDelete
  67. Looks very Toys''R''Us.

    The original G is for me.
    And it still is, thanks
    to Greasemonkey.

    ReplyDelete
  68. I really hate do not like this favicon a single percent, how Google people decided to think this ugly favicon for the world' most used search engine.

    ReplyDelete
  69. It's gonna take some time to get used to, but I think the new favicon is a winner. Simple, yet colorful - a good metaphor for Google itself.

    ReplyDelete
  70. Google with more colorful is cool. I think on the future, I hope google use this logo continously

    ReplyDelete
  71. I really REALLY liked the old one. The first one. It was great! I dont know why Google wanted to change it. It was fantastic! Please switch it back!

    ReplyDelete
  72. ATROCIOUS! Someone vomited where my favicon should be. This is the most disgusting favicon I have ever seen in my entire life from any website. What was wrong with the old capital G? Are you guys trying to deliberately undermine your ability to have any form of recognizable branding. It would be like Nike doing away with the Swoosh™. You don't mess with an iconic trademark.

    ReplyDelete
  73. Thank god, 'cause I thought I caught a virus or something... Maybe you should warn people before changing things.

    ReplyDelete
  74. Why, WHY for God's sake?! :(

    ReplyDelete
  75. I seriously don't like this one.
    The lowercase 'G' was awesome!

    ReplyDelete
  76. Well, at least Google is finally admitting to the fact that their design work is done mostly by undergraduate computer scientists, rather than graphic designers. The best part is that they in fact went ahead and made the final version markedly worse than the outside submission.

    ReplyDelete
  77. The lowercase 'g' was a lot better than this; this is a bad favicon. At first, I didn't like the lowercase 'g', but that was only because it was new. Eventually, it grew on me.

    But I don't think this will ever grow on me: it's a hideous blob of a favicon. Two thumbs way down.

    ReplyDelete
  78. It is now very easy to distinguish an open Google tab from other tabs because of this new favicon! I love it.

    ReplyDelete
  79. I really like it. I think it's a definite improvement over the last

    ReplyDelete
  80. the original [G] was great, the new lower-case blue [g] was great, but i really just got used to the blue favicon then they go change it to what i call the "kid's google" favicon... i really have to agree with the 2nd comment from Anonymous on Jan 9th 09 @ 10:58 AM PDT.

    Also, J said on January 9, 2009 4:37 PM PDT that its getting worse than the 2012 olympics logo too. I have to go with that too.

    ReplyDelete
  81. germex said on January 9, 2009 6:58 PM PDT that his Firefox on Linux pc was old [g], then on his windows pc was the new favicon i call "kid's google". I think on the linux pc you mita just been there before the switch. I've got a pc im gonna put ubuntu on myself, but it really mustn't be the os or firefox thats doing it... favicon isnt really too much of a worry when you get used to it, huh? cos i kinda freaked when i saw it, so i checked the google blog. Good enough, it was there.

    ReplyDelete
  82. Color proportions should have been matched to the logo, primarily Blue, then Red, with yellow and green less prominent. Maybe someone complained about too much Blue in the old favicon?

    ReplyDelete
  83. I hate the new one. It's ugly and distracting - not simplistic enough. Looks like a painting in a doctor's office :p

    ReplyDelete
  84. Eww the mix of colours isn't good

    ReplyDelete
  85. It's cool. Better than last favicon.

    ReplyDelete
  86. Should have stayed with André's original submission, was much better. >:|

    ReplyDelete
  87. Over 100 comments in <24 hrs...it's amazing that people feel so strongly about a little 16x16 icon! If anyone else changed their favicon, who would care--or even notice!
    It looks like about 10-20% who commented liked it--I wonder if Google will keep it for long! (I'm guessing they will.)

    ReplyDelete
  88. The old ones were much better.

    ReplyDelete
  89. The first one was beautiful. Why did you change it? Danilo Di Moia

    ReplyDelete
  90. Please bring back the G.
    All the little g's since then just ain't working with me.

    ReplyDelete
  91. Just great! Keep on, it's beautifull!

    ReplyDelete
  92. I like the new icon. It's cleverly made. I don't know why a lot are complaining when Google explained why the smaller g was more appropriate. It makes sense more this way.

    ReplyDelete
  93. Very nice, well done! I did like it the way it originally was, but also like the new one :D

    ReplyDelete
  94. Well check out how this transformation happened.
    http://tftb.net/2009/01/10/google-changes-its-favicon-again/

    ReplyDelete
  95. There's a Greasemonkey script to bring back old/classic "G" favicon: http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/27548

    ReplyDelete
  96. I hate the new one as I hated the older one and as I hate the oldest one.

    I think Google is missing distinctive graphical logo. They only have a very gently stylized (and excelent) name of Google. Now they are trying to push it to tiny square of favicon.

    They can't succeed as:
    - text logo is too big to fit the favicon area and you have to cut it (getting back to ugly old unpolished capital G with colorful frame)
    - text logo is too plain to be eye catching in such a small area (again you can decorate it with something like in the old capital G with the ugly frame)
    - you can come up with something new, but it will not be related with Google as we know it (two new logos, the middle one was probably the worst idea as it shared all the negative properties)

    And if they don't want a graphical logo, I would return to the old idea of capital G taken from text logo and polish it graphically. The old one really is ugly. Paintbrush job?

    ReplyDelete
  97. The ugliest part of the logo is red-green part, the line between areas just distracts the shape of *g*.

    Also colors are too saturated and carnival like, I would tone them down.

    I would push red to the left-most tiny space, leaving the right side blue and putting green in the top part of *g*

    ReplyDelete
  98. Yes, I saw it and like so much.

    ReplyDelete
  99. New icon sucks. I hate it, it's NOT Google anymore! Google, keep your brand, don't spoil it!
    At least let us choose it in preferences or smthng (if at all possible).

    ReplyDelete
  100. Bah, humbug! This new icon is a mess!

    The blue lower-case 'g' was perfect. Why change a winning formula?

    ReplyDelete
  101. Really awful

    Even worse than the hard to find smallcase g.

    Go back to the original G or create an application enabling us to choose which favicon we prefer to use.

    ReplyDelete
  102. So many strong colors.. in a favicon space..! That's not pleasant... From an obscured view, it looks like... there is a hole in my firefox tabs. And it is UGLY... eye straining silly attention seeker... hmmm... what happened to u google..?

    ReplyDelete
  103. it looks awful.
    I think the best was the last one, the "G", although the classic "g" was also OK.
    Andre Resende's version is much better than what they adapted. The green an red at the right are particulary awful, not to speak of the ugly asymmetry...

    ReplyDelete
  104. I liked the small blue letter G. i dont like the new one, however i do like the one submitted by the person from the U. of brazil.

    ReplyDelete
  105. The old ones were much better.

    ReplyDelete
  106. I really like it. I think it's a definite improvement over the last

    ReplyDelete
  107. I can't see the 'g' now, but then I'm colour-blind!
    The favicon used to be distinctly Google, now it looks a paw print for an animal welfare site.

    ReplyDelete
  108. reminds me of Microsoft

    ReplyDelete
  109. It's hard to see the "g" on a white background. Was this intentional? If I stare at it for a few seconds against a white background it sort of looks like an old reel-to-reel movie projector.

    I cached the old block-style "G" a long time ago. That's what I was using in 1998 when Google came on the scene and I was building metacrawler spider bots. The simple interface with high quality stood out then. You knew these guys were on to something. That's the Google I want to think about when I see an icon so that's the icon I use.

    ReplyDelete
  110. Are they joking? Awful, just awful.

    ReplyDelete
  111. is alright. i quite liked the minimal one, it reflected the simplicity of the homepage. does this mean that google homepage will now become cluttered?

    ReplyDelete
  112. colorful favicon, but ugly. period.

    ReplyDelete
  113. Mind blowingly horrendous. Couldn't even tell there was a g in there at first glance. Different is not always good!

    Do yourself a favor Google and get rid of this child's paint palette.

    ReplyDelete
  114. i had just gotten used to the blue G!! why change? the new favicon is horrible!!!

    ReplyDelete
  115. It looks awful. The original big G was best

    ReplyDelete
  116. The new favicon looks terrible! Did you get some graphics designers from the 1960's to come up with this thing? PLEASE, change it back! ANY of the older versions are better than this.

    ReplyDelete
  117. This new favicon is HORRIBLE. I installed the Favicon Picker add-on to Firefox just to get rid of it. The add-on can also protect the favicon from any further nasty changes like this. What were the folks at Google thinking??? Ugh!

    ReplyDelete
  118. Simple and nice ! It really reflects the brazilian soul ...

    ReplyDelete
  119. Looks like crap to me!

    ReplyDelete
  120. I don't know what you people are smoking when you say things like "The new favicon looks terrible". I'm glad we don't live in such a simplistic monotone world where EVERYBODY thinks that a logo with just a plain g or a box with a G in it is better than a logo with vibrant colors and a nice design. Seems to me you're all just looking for something to b*TcH about (as am I...so I'm b*TcHing at you; the "b*TcHers").

    ReplyDelete
  121. It looks colorful and stylish with the g in the Google-colored landscape. Atticmag, the virtual magazine of home design and decor approves!

    ReplyDelete
  122. Awful, awful, awful. As some other commenters have pointed it they are getting like Microsoft. Very scary

    ReplyDelete
  123. Big G is the best.

    ReplyDelete
  124. Don't worry about all the people complaining just because it's new... This favicon is colourful and in line with the rest of google's design... It looks a bit Web 2.0, but who cares, it's still better than the other two...

    ReplyDelete
  125. It's ugly, time to force it to be what I want ><

    ReplyDelete
  126. Well what do we have here? It seems Google reverted to the simple blue G favicon. Time to fire the retard designer over at Google.

    ReplyDelete
  127. Its an average looking favicon for me,I liked the older one more.

    ReplyDelete
  128. This is just navel-gazing, with all the great improvements that google have made, why are they futzing with and ruining something that worked well before? Everyone recognised a g on a white square. This one's kinda ugly (not as bad as its immediate predecessor mind) but is still far too garish.

    --Ratz

    ReplyDelete
  129. Nice improvement :) Now it represents the original logo

    ReplyDelete
  130. I noticed immediately the second that my browser opened and I think it's hideous!! The original submission by the student was much better, with the 'g' centered. Why did they move it to the side?? To me it looks really awkward and childish, I don't like it at all.

    ReplyDelete
  131. Interesting design however, I can't see why they needed to change it!

    ReplyDelete
  132. i dunno, ill have to get used to it.

    ReplyDelete
  133. Please, try different, It is not WoW....

    ReplyDelete
  134. Seriously google, stop messing with things that wern't broken and just go back the the big G. This favicon looks like it's straight out of the mid 90's or something. Too load and visually noisy, not very google-y at all!

    ReplyDelete
  135. the new one is totally lame. kids may like it tho...

    ReplyDelete
  136. I'm all for change when it is needed, but the new icon is bad. I don't want to insult the designer who came up with it, but in these trying economic times you should do better work for fear of losing your job.

    ReplyDelete
  137. I'm really sorry, but it's horrible. I didn't even notice the 'g' embedded in it at first, it just looked like random splotches of colour.

    André Resende's original icon was pretty good - why did you go and mess with it?

    What would make me happiest though, would be if you were to just bring back the old school capital G in a box. That was fine.

    ReplyDelete
  138. Augh!!! Horrible! Ugly! Childish! Messy! Fussy!

    What happened to google being sleek and clean? The cleanness and simplicity was one of the main reasons why everyone started using google in the first place, not because of any try-hard marketing idea of 'fun playfulness'.

    There is enough badly-designed, squashed-up clutter assaulting our senses while we navigate!

    It doesn't look so bad when the entire favicon design is visible (like the image given in the text of this story) but it doesn't seem to properly fit into the address bar neatly? It just looks squished and amateur!

    Both previous favs were better.

    So so ugly! Boo goo!

    ReplyDelete
  139. The original student submission from Andre was better in my opinion. Having all the colors broken up by the 'g' makes in more legible. The green/red border in the current design just adds confusion.

    ReplyDelete
  140. Y'all know so darn much, don't you. I tend to be critical of this sort of thing, but I quite like this change.

    ReplyDelete
  141. Nope. Don't like it. Enough to bother coming here and commenting on that, which is a lot for me.

    ReplyDelete
  142. It's ugly. I'm taking it off my bookmarks bar. Is there a way to change it back? The old lowercase icon was fine. There should be an option to change it! The primary colors make it look cheap and outdated.

    ReplyDelete
  143. wow, google sets a new trend...the favicons get worse and worse...but the original icon needed a refresh and looked outdated. The little "g" is currently the best

    ReplyDelete
  144. the most recent icon is a complete failure in my eyes! it reminds me of this four colored polo shirt: http://www.uoftbookstore.com/online/prodimg/rugbyshirt.jpg. the design submitted is much better than the current!

    ReplyDelete
  145. It's ok, why not?
    Berny from Cologne, Germany.

    ReplyDelete
  146. This is what programmers actually believe is a good design.

    ReplyDelete
  147. I think the previous favicon lasted too long!! It was almost impossible to recognize google in my bookmarks with such white icon. I don't like the new one so much but i think is much better!!

    gmail has change also its entrance favicon to the new one, so i can't distinguish from the google in my bookmarks. Anyway you can retrieve the gmail and old google favicon yet from http://www.getfavicon.org

    Just search for www.gmail.com or video.google.com

    ReplyDelete
  148. Hm.

    I quite liked both older versions, as they were ugly in an unassuming way--much like the Google logo. This one's ugly in a rather "in-your-face" kind of way, which is more than a little jarring.

    ReplyDelete
  149. The first icon was effective, yet ugly. The second icon was visually appealing, but an ineffective logo. This latest one? Both ineffective and ugly. Come on, Google. You can do better than this.

    ReplyDelete
  150. Hmm, to be honest I am not a fan of it. I will not go so far as to say 'ugly' but there does seem to be a bit of a childish, hand drawn nature to it.
    Also, my biggest complain is that it simply does not jump out at me at all. I am used to my eye instantly jumping to my Google tabs, partially because I recognized the old logo, partially because I felt it was distinctive as it was. I now find my eye scanning the tabs I have open as this does not jump out at me as easily as the other ones. It is like it is so bright that my eye wants to get away and so skims over it.

    ReplyDelete
  151. I think this latest favicon is the best yet. The first was too plain, I didn't like the second one at all, and this one is nice and colorful but still incorporates the "g".

    ReplyDelete
  152. I agree with Recoil. The Big G in a rounded blue box would've have been the best favicon.

    http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/05/new-google-favicon.html

    ReplyDelete
  153. Oh and Alex, could you please tell me how to change the favicon of a website that you own?

    ReplyDelete
  154. This one is way too loud. Andre's submission is way better in that it grabs the attention without overpowering the eyes from which tabs is meant to be from Google. I use Opera and sometimes click on the trashcan for old tabs. The old favicon is immediately recognizable without being a distraction.

    ReplyDelete
  155. the new google favicon looks like a google chrome logo, I like the simplicity of the first favicon :D

    ReplyDelete
  156. well it's definitely better than the last one!

    this time it's more or less noticeable so i'm not going to install a greasemonkey script to replace it, i'll see if i can get used to it.

    P.S what amuses me is that on the screenshot it's FF, not Chrome (=

    ReplyDelete
  157. This isn't bad.

    IMO it would be better if it was a capital G.

    ReplyDelete
  158. It's ugly. I'm sorry, but it's ugly. Using that many colors in that little space just feels all wrong. Both of the previous ones stuck to an elegant feel - foreground, background, and highlight tones. This one looks like something that belongs in a kindergarten - primary colors, dissonant contrast, no elegance. It feels insulting.

    ReplyDelete
  159. I don't really like this one or the previous one. I think the one you had originally is the best, this is the one people always had associated with Google, and you should just stick to that one instead of ruining an important part of your brand by changing it all the time.

    ReplyDelete
  160. Looks much better than the previous one - the lower case blue didn't stand out at all, and the transparent white just blurred into a grey background. This one is nice and colourful. I still think they should use a big G though. I don't think they'll keep this for long...

    ReplyDelete
  161. I won't be very original, but... it's UGLY! And even more important, it's impossible to recognize. It took ma a few months to get used to the previous lowercase 'g', and I don't really see any way to get used to this one... Oh where are those good old times, when tabs and bookmarks whith Google pages were immediately visible even in the most cluttered workspaces thanks to the clear and bright 'G'? BTW I'm sure it was decision of some stupid managed who was also responsible for Chrome icon (which is also really ugly and unrecognizable).

    ReplyDelete
  162. I prefer the older favicon too

    ReplyDelete
  163. Can't you leave anything alone? Perhaps you have too much time on your hands there at Google? Normally this type of thing wouldn't bother me, but that new "favicon" is hideous! Why can't Google just use a normal serif type font? Way too much going on for something so small and insignificant. It's aesthetically unappealing and subjective. Go traditional for your next "favicon".

    ReplyDelete
  164. It's terrible, draws my attention everytime I enter google. Gets me distracted from the purpose of my visit.
    Why?!

    ReplyDelete
  165. its like old east german paintwork, i dont like it.

    ReplyDelete
  166. As the other users have wrote, I hate it. Too much colors, irritating.

    ReplyDelete
  167. The original submission is better than the evolved one! The original makes better, more harmonious use of colour separation (no arbitrary colour edges) and the g doesn't feel squashed in.

    ReplyDelete
  168. It's pretty hideous. The original is definitely better, (I agree with the previous comment wholeheartedly that "The original makes better, more harmonious use of colour separation (no arbitrary colour edges)", and the new one just looks... garish.

    ReplyDelete
  169. I like the new favicon. If you look at it the right way it resembles a duck :).

    Could you make it available in a vectorgraphics format, like SVG? I would like to use it elsewhere, if it's Creative Commons, and the ones on the blog doesn't scale very well.

    ReplyDelete
  170. I don't think it's easy to see the g at all, but that's why I like it.
    I just see it as broken block colours that match the logo colours, that's all.

    I think it's bright, funky and cool - anyone who disagrees is quite clearly wrong :P

    ReplyDelete
  171. When the fav icon changed I thought my computer had been hacked or that I had been taken to some cheap fraud imitation website! Google should tell me about this before they change it so I am prepared!

    I think this changing of logos is Google's way of telling us that they are no longer the company that they used to be and now they are turning into a monster like Microsoft.

    It's not as good as the original.

    ReplyDelete
  172. The new icon was Colorful.. but looks like Google wanna attract kids...it seems like a toy icon!! The old one was classic and cool!!

    ReplyDelete
  173. Can we have a choice of returning to previous ones? I'd go back to the capital G.

    ReplyDelete
  174. I posted a few minutes ago asking to be given the choice to revert to the old favicon. I found this post - http://www.simplehelp.net/2008/05/30/how-to-revert-to-the-old-google-favicon/ - and easily went back. My bookmark bar is back to the excellent old classic cap G. Thanks greasemonkey! (Now I'm going to see what that program is actually supposed to be used for!)

    ReplyDelete
  175. bah,it just looks like someone has used MS-Paint to do this, so simple and ugly

    ReplyDelete
  176. I liked the first favicon (the G with a multicoloured border around it). To me it was quintessentially Google—it didn't try to be clever or sleek or particularly pretty. It kept within the spirit of the homepage, which is focused more on searching than anything else. Google wasn't trying to be pretty, it was trying to be usable.

    The lowercase g was a bit of a shock when I first saw it, and the new colourful one is the same. They're messing with an already-established brand—the lowercase blue g was too hackneyed, and the new colourful one seems determined to be unique.

    I need to find that Greasemonkey script that changes it back to the first one.

    ReplyDelete
  177. Thie new icon is such an eyesore. I mean, it's so ugly, it's disturbing. I had to move my google links in my toolbar to regular folder just to appease my senses.
    Those marketing people really have too much time and money on their hands.

    ReplyDelete
  178. I agree with Aquillyne, the original submission was better...

    ReplyDelete
  179. The original logo is still the best, this new one is god awful.

    I can't stand looking at it. The colors are annoying, it's too busy, and the cut-out g is ineffective. It takes more effort to try and figure out what it is than the efforts worth.

    A logo should be immediate when you look at it, you should know instantly what it is. You shouldn't have to try and decipher it.

    ReplyDelete
  180. The new icon is a much more prominent eyesore than most any previous edition. Hell, Micro$oft designs look better than this monstrosity. I used to like the favicons, but this thing makes me want to wipe them all out just to avoid seeing it. Maybe I'll just find a good site to bounce my google searches through (or find another search site... there's an idea).

    ReplyDelete
  181. As a very successful graphics designer, I absolutely 100% hate this new icon.

    ReplyDelete
  182. Not impressed & find the new one distracting.

    ReplyDelete
  183. I have one browsertab for Google. All the time iI look on my tabs I think it's not the google search results tab but an actual website for the keyword. It hurts my eyes. Google needs a smooth favicon.

    ReplyDelete
  184. I would never have known what that was on my own, because it's so busy. What a fail.

    ReplyDelete
  185. and people say the small purple 'g' was bad!

    ReplyDelete
  186. Ok for a joke - but Really bad if its to stay.

    looks worse when you have multiple tabs open.

    Its far too childish -just a mess - g in one colour is enough.

    Can you put up a faq on how we can change it ourselves?

    The lower case g was the best.

    ReplyDelete
  187. WTH ... yes its colorfull but its ugly!. I don't like it.

    ReplyDelete
  188. The ugliest favicon ever of all Google favicons that were used. At first I didn't even see "g" in there - it looked like a disconnected jigsaw puzzle, or a mix of childishly painted fragments of a broken ancient vase.
    Big G was a good one, the search bar in Firefox still shows it. The best was Google Mobile - lower case g on blue background. You could spot and recognize it instantly, yet it looked very elegant. It should have stayed and be used everywhere.

    ReplyDelete
  189. Wow. The Feedback here appears to be overwhelmingly negative. At first glance, I kind of like it.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.