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New Google Favicon Deja Vu All Over Again?

Posted by timothy on from the matters-of-deep-significance dept.

theodp writes "Last June, Google rolled out a new favicon, the small branding icon that graces your URL bar when you visit Google. Which, as it turned out, bore a striking similarity to Garth Brooks' Circle-G logo. Well, Google went back to the drawing board and has come back with a new favicon, which it says was inspired by — not copied from, mind you — its users' submitted ideas. Some are also seeing inspiration elsewhere for the new favicon, which consists of white 'g' on a background of four color swatches. Take the AVG antivirus icon, for instance. Or everybody's favorite memory toy, Simon. Or — in perhaps the unkindest cut of all — the four-color Microsoft Windows logo, shown here with a superimposed white '7'. Anything else come to mind?" What comes to mind for me is just how obsessed many people are with the Google favicon.

20 of 227 comments (clear)

  1. Really, timothy? by eln · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What comes to mind for me is just how obsessed many people are with the Google favicon.

    You mean like the Slashdot editors who think it's important enough to put on the front page?

    1. Re:Really, timothy? by dotancohen · · Score: 5, Funny

      News for NERDS. Yes, we (the nerds) care about such things. Pedantic is our middle name.

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      It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
    2. Re:Really, timothy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      My middle name is Clive, you insensitive clod!

    3. Re:Really, timothy? by lysergic.acid · · Score: 5, Insightful

      why does it surprise you? have you never been to google.com or seen the official Google logo?

      from the very start Google's used clashing primary colors with a homely serif font for their official logo. at first i thought it looked tacky & unprofessional (and it was), but over time it's grown on me. it's kinda refreshing to have a major IT company whose site doesn't have the stereotypical cold/sterile corporate look. sure, Google's logo comes off as very candid and a little bit childish, but it also elicits a warm & cheerful feelings.

      something that's very sleek & glossy or highly-stylized just wouldn't fit with Google's familiar spartan (and slightly offbeat) image. i mean, if you look at Google's web services like Gmail, Google Calendar, Docs, etc., they all have fairly plain and simple layouts. their designs are functional and modest. this is in stark contrast with the flashy, and often cluttered, web pages of companies like Yahoo!, Microsoft, and the popular early search portals.

      it's a little ironic as Google is primarily an advertising company, but they don't have that 'multi-million-dollar marketing budget' look. this probably contributes to their popularity as Google's web services aren't as intimidating to non-geeks and computer novices who may be turned off by the slick interfaces and flashy layouts other sites strive for.

  2. I'm not really seeing the similarity by Trepidity · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The Garth Brooks one is particularly ridiculous---the only similarity appears to be that both have, at various times, used a lowercase 'g' in an entirely unremarkable font as a logo. Yes, congratulations, two instances of a lowercase 'g' can look similar!

    The rest aren't much more convincing. Google uses some simple arrangements of primary colors, and, amazingly enough, so do some other companies, even some other tech companies. But they don't even look particularly similar (especially the Windows one).

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    10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
    1. Re:I'm not really seeing the similarity by JustinOpinion · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Indeed. When you get down to minimalist, iconic designs, at favicon resolution, there is only so much parameter space. One of those links claims:

      AVG favicon + 90 degree turn + Old favicon + Some smudging -> New favicon

      Give me a break! Newsflash: any icon can be conceptually transformed into any other icon in a finite number of image-manipulation steps. Like: "Slashdot favicon + Convert to B&W + Duplicate the slash 3 times + flip two of the slashes -> Wikipedia's favicon" ... OMG! Wikipedia is stealing ideas from Slashdot!

      The summary is so patently ridiculous that I really have to wonder if it was submitted as a joke or is an attempt to troll Slashdot. Google's new favicon has a "g" and 4 primary colors. It bears some resemblance to other 4-primary-color emblems (of which there are thousands). Get over it.

    2. Re:I'm not really seeing the similarity by Pinckney · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It doesn't matter if they look similar. Favicons are tiny, and nobody is going to use them to identify a product. If there were potential for confusion, think of the chaos we would see, with thousands of sites not using favicons!

    3. Re:I'm not really seeing the similarity by nine-times · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yes, I agree that this whole thing seems a little nit-picky. It's pretty hard to design a good logo. Ask a designer, and many will say that they find it to be one of the hardest things to design, since they should usually be extremely simple designs, immediately identifiable, and wrap up a lot of meaning into a single impression.

      It's even harder to create an logo that doesn't resemble any other logo. You can't really do it. Art in general takes from prior works, even if only stylistically, and nothing is entirely original. People are usually inspired by something, or draw an idea from someone else's work. Besides that, like I said, logos should usually be pretty simple, and if you make a million designs, all of them extremely simple, then every design will resemble at least a couple of the others.

      Knowing all that, consider the form of the favicon. They're 16px by 16px, and IIRC some browsers only support 8-bit graphics (256 colors, no alpha channel). That's going to narrow your options a bit.

      Also, using multiple primary colors are popular in logos. They stand out, and can be used to convey a childish simplicity (fun) or an elemental nature of the product. Using a single letter or only a couple letters is popular in logos-- I don't think I need to explain why. When you put this all together, it would be amazing if lots of favicons didn't resemble each other in various ways.

    4. Re:I'm not really seeing the similarity by TuaAmin13 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Today's episode of /. is brought to you by the letter G

  3. Hardcore Slashdotters won't notice... by dotancohen · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...because lynx does not support favicons, you insensitive clod!

    --
    It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
    1. Re:Hardcore Slashdotters won't notice... by dsginter · · Score: 5, Funny

      ...because lynx does not support favicons, you insensitive clod!

      Lynx!?

      Real hackers just stick the UTP on their tongue and decipher the signals with their taste buds. SIDE NOTE: I once discovered the hard way that a telephone ring signal is 90vac.

      On a related note, I have been storing all of my favorites on the bookmark bar (or whatever it is called). As more sites are using the "favicon", it has been helpful to just edit the bookmark and remove the title altogether (leaving just the icon). You can fit a lot of favorites in the toolbar in this manner.

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    2. Re:Hardcore Slashdotters won't notice... by Idiomatick · · Score: 5, Informative

      There is also a firefox addon which lets you pick your own favicons. I've got my whole bar filled with every site i'll ever need that way. :D

  4. Wow... by zwekiel · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is such important news. Man, the people at the New York Time s are going to be kicking themselves if their morning paper has already been sent out to the printer.

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    Web Hosting: Unlimited storage and bandwidth: $5/month
  5. News just in by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... the "S" in Slashdot looks similar to the "S" in MicroSoft!

  6. Looks Like a Paw. Brings to mind Pet Supplies. by Ron+Bennett · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Looks like a blotch of random colors. I had no idea there was a lowercase "g" in it until I read the article here.

    IMHO, the old favicon was much better - knew right away what it was. A bunch of random colors brings to mind websites about photoshopping, psychology (think blotch tests), or even a pet supply site, since it looks kinda like a paw print.

    Ron

    1. Re:Looks Like a Paw. Brings to mind Pet Supplies. by im_thatoneguy · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Agreed. For the first few days I kept noticing the new favicon for google and wondering in my head "Why is google putting up a jumble of random shapes for their favicon?" I had assumed it was like the anniversary of some grand puzzle maker or something. Only yesterday did it suddenly hit me "OH that's a g!"

      Terrible logo. In the middle it's at least legible.

  7. Unpossible by the-bobcat · · Score: 5, Funny

    Everyone knows that it's spelled Micro$oft.

    1. Re:Unpossible by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Everyone knows that it's spelled Micro$oft.

      Exactly! And judging by the way the editors are posting this crap purely to get pagehits, it's safe to call it $la$hdot.

  8. What I have learned by PK_ERTW · · Score: 5, Funny
    So, before this article I knew the google had changed there "little-icon-thingy".

    Yes, as far as I knew that is what it is called.

    What I have learned so far from this article is:

    • Little-icon-thingy is not the correct name
    • Favicon is the right name. I like mine more.
    • Many companies use an assortment of primary colours.
    • Google's makes a lower case 'g'. Cool, had not noticed that yet.

    What falls in the what else is new category:

    • Some people don't think a story belongs on the front page

    PK

    --
    Engineers arn't boring people, we just get excited about boring things.
  9. Re:Almost Identical to Printing Company in Austin by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 5, Funny

    Damn! You caught me!

    You see, I'm Google's brand designer. I was totally stumped when they told me they wanted a new logo, but then I thought: hey! There's that printing company in Austin!

    I didn't think anybody would see the connection! *sob*

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    Comment of the year