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Why is the new Google favicon so ugly?

When I first saw the new lowercase “g” favicon for Google, I thought it was a glitch. The blue of the icon was a bit too bright for my taste, and the “Web 2.0″ spin on it (shiny, rounded-corner button) was not characteristic of Google at all. A few hours later I saw that people started to talk, nay, complain about it. And then I realized it was a tiny Google redesign, after all.

Here’s the official explanation from the Google Blog:

Some people have wondered why we changed our favicon — after all, we hadn’t in 8.5 years(!). 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.

And here’s the whole suite of icons for the redesign:

It looks a bit nicer in higher resolutions, but as a favicon, not at all. The small “g” is just a few pixels away from becoming indistinguishable to the number “8″. It also looks like it’s struggling to stand up straight, but failing miserably at it.

How much does Google favicon suck?

  1. Mayer claims that the redesign is not final, and is even invoking the wisdom of the masses to submit their own Google favicon ideas. Spec much?
  2. A logo redesign takes a lot of effort (which was also mentioned in the post). The inability to stand by their decision to change the favicon shows flakiness on the company’s part. On the other hand, it’s a good thing for such a gigantic company to be this sensitive about the smallest thing about them. Maybe because they don’t want to act like “the big G”.
  3. The rounded-corner button look and the specific mention of the iPhone tells me they’re designing for Apple, not for themselves or for any other mobile device. Is Steve Jobs this good at being a design dictator?
  4. Users have created scripts to bring back the old favicon.
  5. A comment on TechCrunch: “Google has a design team?” More on that here and here. I’m sorely tempted to write about how Google’s designs are so Web 1.0 (now trying to be Web 2.0), but had no particular reason to. This favicon renewed that desire.

Note: When I use “Web 1.0″ and “Web 2.0″ as design terms here, I mean them sarcastically. I am fully aware that there is no such thing as the “Web 2.0″ look. Glossiness, reflections, and rounded corners are design characteristics that came from Apple first.

Point is, Google never cared about “looking Web 2.0″, never cared about looking a certain way—until this favicon redesign. Despite some very bad design choices, Google’s interfaces are clean, simple, and easy to use. They’re not trying to be what they’re not. But this favicon is. It’s the end of an era, alright.

Remember Blackle? Google is so universal that any small change can turn out to be a huge impact. In the case of Blackle, it was about saving energy. In the case of this favicon, it’s about associating an ever-visible icon on the browser tab bar with the most-used search engine out there. People will have to get used to looking for that small “g” instead of that big “G” when they’re cycling through tabs.

Related reading:

Published by Sophia Lucero on June 8, 2008 in Design, Web++ and tagged , , • Did you like it? Subscribe! Or Submit it to Blogosphere News!

32 people says things!

  1. Well, personally I think the new favicon looks quite nice (compared to the old one at least). Do you still remember the previous web browser favicon? A blue, uppercase G with a multi-color, 1px border. Now -that- was sucky!

    The new one is nothing special, by any means, but I’m certainly fond of that Mobile version!

    By Eli on June 8, 2008 3:06 am

  2. YEAH, Google change the damn icon it’s ugly

    By YO on June 8, 2008 10:57 am

  3. I agree, the new fav icon just looks horrible, Google shouldn’t do this, they are well known for their simplicity in design and they are liked for it.

    By Simon North on June 8, 2008 1:59 pm

  4. I can say with complete confidence that the reason the new google favicon sucks is because their identity as a hole sucks. It seriously has to be the most successful company in the planet in need of a serious redesign. The original logo was free if I am not mistaken, and is just a POS. I rarely say that design work is bad because a lot of time and effort goes into design, however google really has the money and resources to get an all together better identity and its about time.

    While I know there is a ton of equity in their brand, that does not mean that they could maintain some sort of recognition and do a redesign.

    By Zinni on June 9, 2008 4:19 am

  5. Totally agree,
    The old one’s better

    By shafiu on June 9, 2008 6:09 am

  6. [...] UPD.Why is the new Google favicon so ugly? [...]

    By Nassos K. | Crazymonkey » Google’s New Favicon on June 9, 2008 1:14 pm

  7. yeah.. it looks weired.. i don’t why have they kept it like this… some time it really feels if its really a Google web page or what?

    By suraj on June 9, 2008 4:16 pm

  8. Someone ran out of things to blog about it seems. Who cares what it looks like, hell I never even look at those tiny little icons anyway.

    By Meme on June 9, 2008 4:30 pm

  9. @Simon: explain to me me how this new icon is not simple?

    I don’t like it because the transparency is set too high (e.g. too transparent). I would like to see a little more contrast, that could make the favicon stand out a bit more.

    BTW: funny post =].

    By Xavez on June 9, 2008 6:00 pm

  10. I also have to agree. It looks very much like design 101 at a comunity college. I can’t understand the bright color either. It makes me a little dizzy to look at it. I hope they come around and redesign again. I would hate to have to wait another 8.5 years! Come on now you can do better than that Google!

    By Johnnie protocall on June 9, 2008 10:51 pm

  11. I had exactly the same thought when I first saw the favicon appear – damn, Firefox is buggin out again. Damn ugly.

    By pault107 on June 9, 2008 11:02 pm

  12. I totally thought that it was a glitch or a hack as well. Interesting to know that they implemented this ugly favicon intentionally.

    By Samantha on June 9, 2008 11:35 pm

  13. I actually like the new logo better than the old one… maybe I have better contrast on my laptop or something.

    By John Ericksen on June 10, 2008 4:26 am

  14. I like Black Google’s (Blaxel) favicon. http://www.blaxel.com

    By Johnny on June 12, 2008 2:52 pm

  15. [...] поэтому, наблюдая возмущения пользователей, Google пошел им навстречу, предложив возможность им [...]

    By Google предлагает пользователям нарисовать favicon » Записки Димокса on June 16, 2008 10:00 am

  16. http://turbomilk.ru/truestories/cookbook/masterclass/google-favicon/
    Russian designers tried to create a good favicon for Google
    Of cause, not official.

    By teplorod on June 17, 2008 9:50 pm

  17. [...] some designers claim that Google’s new favicon is ugly and Denis Kortunov knows how to draw a good icon for Google. Here is an example of how it might [...]

    By Favicon Episode 7 | Design Showcase | Smashing Magazine on June 24, 2008 10:56 am

  18. Full agree!

    By Fubiz on June 24, 2008 11:56 am

  19. Hey guys, wake up, you complain about the g-favicon, but isn’t the real problem not the Google logo itself ? It’s now omnipresent (and so works well as a brand) and has been re-pixelpushed, but it remains a “hey, who knows how to put some *¨%£ù color on that font in Mircrosoft word-logo” …

    Ciao,
    Quentin

    By Quentin on June 24, 2008 12:47 pm

  20. I agree that new google favicon is ugly.

    First because the ‘g’ is taken from the middle ‘g’ of the word ‘Google’. It is not eye-catching, it is not outstanding part of the logo that people catch on the first sight.

    Secondly because the color of the ‘g’ is only one part of the color on the word Google. Google logos has five color that are quite contrast to one another, and each color shows their own characteristics. It is not that one color is the “light” version of “pastel” version of the other color, therefore taking one of the color to represent the whole is impossible.

    Third, the most practical one, is my personal experience : first time looking at the ‘g’ symbol on my browser tab, I don’t realize that tab is opening Google page

    By aylwin on June 24, 2008 2:58 pm

  21. Looks to me like Google hired the guys who designed the London 2012 Olympic Logo.

    By Steve on June 24, 2008 9:01 pm

  22. g for god-awful.

    i’m so glad you posted this. I no longer feel alone in the universe.

    By Ali on July 2, 2008 4:38 am

  23. [...] Ein schöner Artikel zum Thema findet sich auf dem empfehlenswerten Blog: wisdump.com :-) [...]

    By Warum ist das neue Google Favicon so häßlich? on July 17, 2008 1:31 pm

  24. [...] some designers claim that Google’s new favicon is ugly and Denis Kortunov knows how to draw a good icon for Google. Here is an example of how it might [...]

    By Yasar Gokcek - Favicon Episode 7 on September 21, 2008 7:02 pm

  25. [...] warum ist das neue Google Favicon so häßlich? Bessere Vorschläge kommen von Denis Kortunov: How to draw a good icon for Google? Das sieht dann [...]

    By Favicon Galerie on January 10, 2009 4:17 am

  26. [...] warum ist das neue Google Favicon so häßlich? Bessere Vorschläge kommen von Denis Kortunov: How to draw a good icon for Google? Das sieht dann [...]

    By Google hat ein neues Favicon on January 10, 2009 4:18 am

  27. Courses, masters, universities don’t make business administration people clever, just stupid. Someone has to show that he or she (probably he) does “something” to justify his/her salary. They then pay a lot to a consultant to justify it’s something important and then you get a unneeded logo change.

    The new favicon is probably a little better than the second one but none is as good as the first. The first one apart from been quite correct was the one we identified google with. A good brand should never be changed.

    By manolo on January 10, 2009 9:25 pm

  28. Hey guys, thefaviconshomepage.com already hosts the brand new google favicon!

    By The Favicons Homepage on January 12, 2009 10:02 pm

  29. Looks like you got your wish. Now we’ve got a REALLY ugly favicon. I’d love to have the blue back.

    By Keith on January 13, 2009 2:43 am

  30. The icon Google used to inspire the new one looks better. My only problem with this new one is that the G is offset so much, you can’t even tell it’s a G. Also, does anybody else feel the 4 color logo style is a ripoff of the Windows logo that MS has been rocking for the past 20 years?! The same goes for Google Chrome, it’s just the Windows logo turned into a Pokemon ball.

    You can see the user icon that was submitted to Google in their blog post:
    http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2009/01/new-google-favicon.html

    By TravisO on January 14, 2009 12:22 am

  31. Truly ugly. Fire the graphic designer.

    By Carl on January 15, 2009 3:44 pm

  32. TravisO has called it – the original change wasn’t so bad when compared to the newest one. Mega sux0rs!

    By Andy on January 15, 2009 4:54 pm

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