Google Changes, Colorizes Favicon

Jan 9, 2009 at 2:31pm ET by Barry Schwartz

It looks like Google just updated their favorite icon for the second time in less then a year. Don’t see it? Visit http://google.com/favicon.ico and refresh the page. Below, more about the old, new and newest ones.

Google’s new fav icon (January 2009):

Previous one (May 2008 – January 2009):

Original favicon: (??? – May 2008)

Why the change? Google said in the past that the redesigned favicon reflected a “Simple, Playful & Unique Brand.” Has that changed? Maybe they changed it because some people really didn’t like the new favicon?

I have emailed Google for a comment. They had said previously that the one released in May 2008 wasn’t final and held a contest looking for submissions. Perhaps this is the winner.

Hat tip to Google Blogoscoped for spotting this first. For releated commentary, see here on Techmeme.

Postscript: Google’s new favicon has the official word from Google that the new icon is from the contest that was held.

Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.

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3 COMMENTS ON Google Changes, Colorizes Favicon

Matt Austin, January 10th, 2009 at 1:07 am ET:

I made a quick/rough hi-res mock-up of the new logo and posted it on my blog: http://mattaustin.me.uk/2009/01/new-google-favicon/ . At first I was unsure if I liked it, but I think it’s starting to grow on me – and it’s certainly an improvement from the previous “g” favicon.

Ciarán Norris, January 11th, 2009 at 8:42 am ET:
Premium member since 01/2009

Such an incredible waste of time. The original one was obviously & clearly identifiable as Google. This one just looks like a mess.

mattotude, January 12th, 2009 at 9:19 am ET:

New Year, New Logo… I wonder what effect that has on the carbon footprint? Not the best logo I agree, however I do think it is better than 2008.

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