When Crowdsourcing Goes Bad: The Google Favicon Fiasco
The world of the favicon is a harsh one. Of all the challenges facing graphic designers, compressing a company's identity into an area 16 pixels square has to be one of the toughest. Some firms, such as Apple and Adobe, catch a break, since their graphically simple logos translate well into favicondom. But others find the task daunting, not least of which, it would seem, is Google.
For the first eight and a half years of its existence, Google was content to use a simple G, surrounded by a colored border, to mark its place in browser address bars and bookmarks, as shown at left. But last summer that old friend vanished, replaced by the small g below. The change was driven by the need for an icon that would perform better on mobile devices and was the pick from hundreds created by Google designers. Okay, no problem there, the original G was both generic and boxy, so you can see the logic in going for the small g. I don't remember the switch taking place but apparently users weren't happy with the new look. True, the g was so modest as to be easily overlooked and it had a Web 2.0-ish faint rounded container that was a bit corny. So it was back to the drawing board.
But instead of Google's staff designers trying harder or, better yet, hiring a top design and brand management firm, this time around Google inexplicably invited anyone and everyone to submit their take on what the next version should look like. Response was apparently heavy and from the submissions Google picked the work of Brazilian computer science student André Resende, shown at left. Another take on the small g, this one sports the four colors used in the Google logo. I could have lived with it but the Google designers saw fit to "improve" it by moving the g to the left, thereby making it look like... what, exactly? They also added a second area of blue, reducing the simplicity of the original submission. The dominant color is now green, the color least present in the Google logo.
Perhaps the new favicon serves the design objectives of Google but I find it a crude, unwelcome intrusion into my browsing environment. I've been trying to acclimatize myself to its presence for weeks now, with no success. Will Google change it again? Probably. Until then, if you know of a hack for suppressing it or changing it back to the original G, please let me know.
Chris Dickman
Graphics.com | Also blogging on Photos.com
I'm ashamed to admit I never paid it much mind.
I actually don't use Google as much as I used to. I find it's become less and less relevant for real and effective search results, and then there's the issue of Google turning into the government's bitch and censoring search results. Sure, I still use it (as a creature of habit) for a generic search, but if I want to get into real nitty gritty details, I go elsewhere. Wikipedia is often a good start now.
Altavista for the win.
But I digress. I do agree about the first revised "g" over the second.
I can hardly sleep since they changed it. As abstract art it's pretty good, but a lop-sided square with an illegible lowercase consonant isn't a brand.
Even mine's better. And I guarantee it was cheaper.
I like how the favicon can be so indicative of the brand. It's as if they've changed their whole logo. I find it odd that some websites don't use favicons. I find them indispensable as I usually have at least 10 tabs open at once.
Yes, I noticed the change right away as well and hated the color scheme also. It just didn't seem to fit google, not putting too much concesious thought into why? Of course your correct, the green is dominant and with the red it seems 'Christmasy'.
I've spent a fair amount of time trying to create a favocon for my blog and am still not happy with it. But I did get the state to show up well even if the letters inside it do not. Perhaps that is the most important thing as it probably identifies my site more than the letters anyway. But trying to created these icons with 16 pixels is a challenge to say the least.
If this is keeping you awake at night or ruining your whole day: get a life! Favicon has always been, and always will be, an insignificant pest. But when I first noticed the latest Google version, I liked it and I still do. And to be even more annoying, I like that a major corporation is willing to experiment. Screw the "top design and brand management firm" mentality: that was for television.
I look forward to reading your hate mail :-)
Chris Dickman responds: Your comment isn't annoying, it's just ungrounded. The graphical identity of a corporation matters. Using the design work of amateurs is, simply... amateur.
Some very good points were brought up in this article. I'm glad the default google page still has the simple "g". The new colored "g" only appears when you log in to you google account.
At least they didn't use a submission off of "http://www.favicon.cc"
I have seen worse, the brazilian guys one reminds me of the UK 2012 olympics logo but much smaller, less ugly and I imagine a much cheaper pricetag.