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.

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Logos | Top News

About The Author: 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. For more background information on Barry, see his full bio over here. See more articles by Barry Schwartz

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