The Story Behind Google’s New Favicon | Hacker News Reader

The Story Behind Google’s New Favicon

techcrunch.com

16 pointsjmorin00717 comments

I still like the old one better, it stood out and was easier to pick out in my tabs. This one just blends in and I skip over it. The YC favicon has a bold color which makes it easy to pick out.

Oh well this one is sleeker and more apple like, but not everything needs to be sleek, and whispy.

Fascinating. I can't wait to hear the inside scoop on how they code their img tags.

Good one! Pretty much same reaction as I had.

It was a major failure to redo the icon. Change all the other property's icon, but leave the standard search engine icon alone.

To me, it smells like someone trying to keep their job. My brain instantly recognizes that icon. I skip back-and-forth to that icon hundreds of times a day. Now I'm left fumbling and angry at Google. Sure, I'll survive, but it'll be there at the edge of my brain for a while.

It's always the small things. We need a Steve Jobs like character at Google that gets how important design is. And that means not changing it for change's sake.

I personally don't like purple for the color or the lower case..g - I think another color selection could have represented better things... is it just me?

Probably just you, since it's blue.

It definitely looks blue when it was blown up in the TC article, but in my browser tabs it looks purple to me too.

in my broswer - ff 2.0 - and with the white highlights it comes off a purple to me [damn that is why I never match]

What this really says to me is that Google has devolved quite far, from the days when they were happy to slap on any google-doodle on the front page. They are now happy to waste (I can only call it that) hundreds or maybe thousands of hours creating an icon.

A favicon is a pretty important part of an online company's brand/identity. I'm not surprised they thought carefully before deciding on what to change it to. Plus Google have a surplus of very intelligent people; it's not like they couldn't afford the time.

What surprises me is that I really dislike the new favicon, personally.

I don't agree at all. If favicon is important part of an online company's identity there must be something seriously wrong. However bad or good the company does in the future won’t be based on the look on the favicon… so in my opinion it does not matter at all.

If favicon is important part of an online company's identity there must be something seriously wrong

Why? You're stating an opinion, not an argument.

Surely you would agree that Google's logo is an important part of their visual identity -- I think the favicon fits into that. It is seen billions of times every single day, shows up in bookmarks for the site, and will likely be propagated to many other sites that need logos/images for stories about Google.

I was just saying that favicon is just very small part of an online company's identity and it’s definitely not a serious part.(If you still don't get my point then ask yourself: how many companies I know that make more money because of their favicon?)

I agree with your points.

I think what is wrong with it is that it is too twisty and curvy for something that is to be so small. A favicon should be bold, simple, clear. Like the Y on this site.

Yeah, the "Y" favicon is really good.

Y-Combinator and Facebook have the best i've seen. I'm really impressed with Facebook's--it manages to be stylish and simple at the same time.

The thumbnails of the others they were considering are telling...very iPhone-esque.

Google is moving to Apple, becoming a challenger rather than the usual innovator.

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