I can't say I'm a fan of the new favicon, however it would seem that it is only appearing on google.com. google.co.za still returns the old G favicon.

It really messed with my head this morning... couldn't find my Google search among my Firefox tabs. This is going to take some getting used to. Removing the yellow, red and green seems to have changed the Google image completely.

I can't say I'm a fan. Unless they're changing their logo, I don't know why they'd use both upper case and lower case styles, in different fonts.

Google is one of my favorite companies, but it's schizophrenic a lot of the times. If you have an account through Google Apps, that doesn't mean your username will work with a typical Google Account, Adwords and the like.

The icon? That's just a symbol of a company that really doesn't have its stuff together when it comes to branding. It perplexes me to no end.

I just noticed it now and it really throws you off, doesn't it? In my tabs, I find it difficult to return to my google tabs in Firefox because my brain doesn't process the new icon as 'Google'.

I don't understand why they did it. I don't like the aesthetics and unless there was something really wrong with the previous icon, why change it?

Hey! They stole that from me!
http://www.geekstogo.com/

I now see that it's the small g in Google and not a different style.

I still don't like it.

http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/27548 if you don't like the new icon, you can go back to the old one.

It didn't load for me initially. I had to go to http://www.google.com/favicon.ico and do a hard refresh (Ctrl-F5 on Firefox/Windows). Clearing the cache would probably work as well.

It looks good - get over it. They do need to be consistent though, if they are re-imaging their look.

I have heard that there are cache issues with changing the favicon, but apparently most people are seeing it eventually.

A change is fine, but I would recommend the Yahoo approach by making it look more like a the "G" in their logo. The smaller case "g" can be hard to make out if you don't see very well. It could look like an "8" to some people. Maybe they could widen the bottom part of the "g".

hey bring back the old icon

Changing favicons for holidays wouldn't work well because browsers cache favicons.

I'm not a big fan, and I think it will create some temporary brand confusion.

Unfortunately, I think it is bad
Former icon was beautiful

It seems that a small change from Google earned some discussions on the web. Well I've no idea why they change the favicon. Maybe for a new product launch or a special day? A change is good, but it would be better if they could make the "g" looks more solid on the tab.

Small, but nice change...

what's with the '8'? Looks more like an eight to me.

The individual home page still has the old favicon (google.com/ig).

Forget my prev. comment, the old one was stuck in the cache...

LOL, I was also surprised to see some new icon on my bookmarks. But anyway this one isnt that neat as earlier one, I do miss the "G"

Does a website's favicon actually matter? I can't believe anyone gives a rat's ass about this.

I spent more than a few minutes trying to figure out what the occassion was today, to cause google to change their icon.

I think the old one is really far more visible, and easier to locate amidst a bunch of tabs, though.

The one I'm seeing now is different from the above example...and even worse. There's a black background behind the lower half of the "g", with that part of the "g" reversed-out. Horrid and illegible.

Someone needs to make a greasemonkey script that allows us to view the old fav icon.

Oh, nevermind. Thanks Grillios!

totally a Marketing gimmick - but holy shit it totally screwed me up

It appears to have changed on a few domains, or perhaps just google.com.

google.com.au is still using the old icon.

Peace,
--Wade

Face it, the Google logo sucks, uppercase or lowercase. Designed by engineers when the company was three or four guys.

The small 'G' looks (IS) like an infinity symbol and the 'G' from Google.

I like it. Much cooler and far more stylish than the old one. :)

i thought my connection was being hijacked. are they planning to change their main logo, that would make some major buzz. i don't really like the new icon it looks more like an 8 than a G. I 8oogle 2.0 anybody?

Count me as opposed.

I can understand why they did it -- uppercase (generally) looks so rigid and corporate, and Google embraces the whimsical, which the curly lowercase 'g' would seem to represent...were it not so ugly trying to stand on its own.

The uppercase 'G', particularly with the rainbow-coloured box around it, was IMHO both more distinctive and more attractive.

I love the new one. It's much more modern; the old one is stuck in 1998. Soft drinks, laundry detergent, and every other type of consumer packaging change branding, on average, every 18-24 months; why shouldn't Google after all these years? Ironic, therefore, that I still have the old one (despite full refreshing) because I'm using an experimental version of the Google search engine, which hasn't been updated.

I liked the old one. Just get rid of the border around the old one to bring it up to date. To me it's the uppercase G (in that particular font) that screamed "Google". It'll take a while to get used to the new one.

Oh, dear. What a mess.

The 'Big G' was part of their brand. It was eye-catching and distinctive. It was familiar.

The new one completely destroys that. The new one is weak and indistinct. And WTF choose a letter from the *middle* of your name?

This is change without purpose or benefit.

Evidently Google has more money than it knows what to do with if they're paying people to 'fix' stuff that ain't broken.

Or as Bill O'Reilly would put it:

FUCKING THING SUCKS!

Lower case g is surrounded by a color that blends with my display. When I changed the display, the favicon changed too. Why have a corporate favicon the is nearly illegible???

Like I said on digg, the icon is ugly.
Period.

can't find myself getting overly excited by it.

Looks like most people here aren't happy with the new favicon. I'm certainly not. I miss the old one and (like Mario) I'm so accustomed to quickly identifying the familiar G that since the change, it's taken me a couple of seconds to locate the Firefox tab I want. To TreeRex: if you don't care, why did you bother posting anything? There are obviously people who do care (see above posts) so just go do your own thing.
Anyway, nice to find a place to vent. I miss G!

I personally like the old "G"...
The new G looks like an "8" to me....

don't like the new one, it doesn't stand out like the old one did. miss the old one

Looks like changes coming to google. o.O

Is it part of their NEW brand?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeLmCcx0tWA

Have to say I'm not too sure about it myself. With the old favicon you could tell it was Google without thinking about it. The new one is a little indistinctive.

How about a knock on Firefox 3 for not allowing you to change it back to the original icon without jumping through hoops. At least there was an icons plugin Firefox 2.

I don't like it .. when I saw it for the first time I thought, is that a drunken infinity symbol? .. oh wait .. it's the small g by itself. not cute.

I thought either i was on the wrong site, or that my Firefox was hi jacked.

Ugly. Not original. Stole it from here:

http://www.geekstogo.com/

I installed scripts to make it display the old fav icon.

Interesting thing this Google Favicon thing, but i don't understand why it was replaced, maeby this is more Web2.0 :)

They didn't steal it from anywhere, it's the same lowercase "g" that has been in Google's logo this whole time.

BLUE 'g' on a BLUE background on a BLUE taskbar. Who in the hell thought that one up?

I dont like new google vaficon!!!! It makes me feel newbie with google..

I really don't like it. The G looked like a g. This looks like an 8. I don't understand why they'd change a symbol that's been a staple of the search engine's look since as long as i can remember.

I hate the new icon. It's so lame.
Plus I didn't even realize it was google's until I clicked on the tab. The old one was so much better.

Horrible decision by Google. Different resolutions make the new favicon look horrendous. The scripted small g is just too much for favicon size limits.

And WTF can I do? My favicon for Google has changed to the icon for one of my other favourite icons (tvguide.dk). I have tried to clear the cache, and manually change the icon but still I get an icon that hasn't got anything to do with Google. Please help me out!!

...I just managed to get the new favicon for Google by my self. But g.. it's awfull.
Give us back the good old G !!!

I don't like it.

I go back is still had probably him. we watched just their up across we just wasn't at had probably damage I remember my first I go back front yard tree

Looks nearly identical to the favicon used by Getty Images.

http://www.gettyimages.com/Home.aspx

Don't like it either. I vote for a return to the old one. Or something different, the new one just doesn't grab me.

Thought people should know that this style of lettering has been around for 80 years. British sculptor Eric Gill designed Perpetua typeface in 1929.

The logos ok.
Thats all.
Nothing special

I usually like when things change. Feels like the evolutionary wave has taken us to a new level.
But i have to agree with soooooo many people on this....the new icon is simply BAD... its hurts my eyes....the old one was "clean" and colorful...the new one...well..you get my point....i dont like it... :-P please google teachs...change it back to the old one that is recognized by "the whole web"....

Or redesign the new one so its at least nice to look at....

I don't know whether it is just the change that I don't like. I'm used to seeing that big G in my address bar.

Thanks for the post, I am suprised google did not say anything about the icon on their main page. I thought the computers I was using were infected with spyware or something for a second as the icon did not appear to be what I see every time I post.

Please take a look at my new Google Favicon ideas here:
CAEIOUS's Google Favicon Red Horn
&
CAEIOUS's Google Favicon Yella'Horn

looks like geocities

every theng is fine it looks very professional

every thing is fine it looks very professional but try to make it a little fancy thta the Logo Google has to be liked by all please take my feedback and try to implement it as soon as possible

who gives a crap

g
OK.
g
So?
I mean, is there an actual meaning behind it, or did they just come up with it?
Like, who cares - and what were they thinking?
Does anybody know, or has the truth to stay "out there"?
g

it is ugly. especially the color.

It's a bad design, period. I have a black desktop background and a blue taskbar/toolbar. It's hard to see on the blue and impossible to see on the black.

I think the new google icon looks like shit!

Well the icon I've got for google is a black WD on a yellow background!

Now the Google logo is 5 blobs of colour.
It doesn't even look like anything, just blobs.
If you thought is was crap before...
Then this should show you, that you didn't know crap before!

Google fav icon is now blobs of coloured crap.
Did they hire some 3 year olds with crayons to do this?

I WANT 'g' BAAAAAAAACK...........please!!!

I thought it looked a little weird at first but after looking at it a bit more I'm starting to really like it.

Tahir :D its till 'g' :D, just white, and with colors all around :P

Kham Tran :D exactly my thoughts :P

Yeah. It is a big hard to see but honestly I'm pretty pleased with it. That crappy blue "G" was god-awful.

Nice to see the new icon which is more colorful

hey, is it me or the favicon have the similar colour with microsoft windows(windows : red-green-blue-yellow. google: blue-red-yellow-green) is this mean anything to you?

I like the new icon.

The new icon sucks, the "G" is lost in those bright colors. It has no style to it.

two times change in less than 10 months. It makes us confuse. I dont like this unclear icon

whot there is a g in all that? i thought it was a cat paw or sth

New one blows. Took a Jaguar and traded it for a Yugo. Let the spirit move you...not the desire to change just because you can.

don't like the new one. too many colours, too complicated. less is more sometimes...

Instructions for setting the latest favicon (the one with the color patches) can be found here:

http://fahdshariff.blogspot.com/2009/01/set-googles-new-icon-in-firefoxs-search.html

New icon is absurd and doesn't match Google's values of simplicity but advanced

The first one mentioned at the top of this article is undoubtedly the best, it really helps you identify your Google tabs/bookmarks with ease, the others simply dont. I'll be downloading that Greasemonkey script now, thanks!

Does anyone else think it belongs on the Partridge Family bus?

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=partridge%20family%20bus&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

I miss that ol' G. The new one reminds me of fruity pebbles. Know how they get stuck in your teeth? Not a good fit for me.

Its just that is got used to the olg big "G"
but im giving this new icon a chance...

let's see...

The primary colors and lowercase 'g' make the new one look childish. Bring back the G!

The new google favicon seems a lot like AVG antivirus logo...

http://images.google.es/images?q=avg%20antivirus&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:es-ES:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

Or maybe they're getting consistent with the Google Chrome icon, at least color-wise.

fuuuuuuuuuuuuugggggggglllllllyyyyyyyy

I HATE the new favicon - It's too distracting and dominant. Get rid of it please google!

The new google icon is so hideous that it noticeably degrades the quality of my day-to-day life. I'd really like to say that I was exaggerating, but it angers me to see primary colors together like that, but without mingling involved.

Anyone notice the new Google icon has the same colors and the Windows icon? I guess copying is the sincerest form of flattery.

Once was proud to have your icon on my professional looking desktop, but removed it now --looks embarrassing.

Thumbs down to Google for its forced hideous looking new icon. I keep changing it under properties and the hideous one keeps returning. I'm thisclose to deleting it off my desktop.

Annoying. Notice they said "we felt". Riiigght. How 'logical' of them. Notice they said "playful" - well, sorry, but software is not something to "play" around with. UI familiarity is not something to take away from users. The way it was two years ago was definitely more professional and less micky mouse. As thousands of people have posted thousands of times: Google, stop "changing" things for no mf@$% reason.

The new logo looks disgusting a weird blob, I'm trying to find a way to blog images from google - its time those morons stop acting like Microsoft and pissing all over people.

Hey, screw your new icon and the idiot that created it! It Sucks. I want the old one back or maybe I'll just go to Ask.com

Hey, screw your new icon and the idiot that created it! It Sucks. I want the old one back or maybe I'll just go to Ask.com

I think its sensible if google returns to there original favicon and insensible if they don't

Screw your new icon and the idiot that created it - It Sucks! I want the old one back.

Screw the idiot that created your new icon. It Sucks. I want back my old capital [G] icon.