Google Changes, Colorizes Favicon

It looks like Google just updated their favorite icon for the second time in less then a year. Don’t see it? Visit  https://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.