Comments on: Google desperately trying to appear like an ‘underdog’

By: Google has a new Favicon, do you like it? - Joop.in China

Google has a new Favicon, do you like it? - Joop.in China — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 03:24:44 +0000

[...] other shocking news, Google changed their favicon again! As you might remember, Google updated their favicon to a rather *fugly* one last June. A few days later Google challenged [...]

By: Google has a new Favicon, do you like it? « TheNextWeb.com

Google has a new Favicon, do you like it? « TheNextWeb.com — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 05:06:00 +0000

[...] other shocking news, Google changed their favicon again! As you might remember, Google updated their favicon to a rather *fugly* one last May. A few days later Google challenged [...]

By: Google favicon; think you can do better? Maybe you can!

Google favicon; think you can do better? Maybe you can! — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 13:51:46 +0000

[...] few days ago Ernst-Jan wrote about the updated Google Favicon at this blog. It looked kind of lame and I remember thinking ‘I could do better than [...]

By: Eric

Eric — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 01:43:53 +0000

Google maybe trying to have trade mark or brand change and testing it with favicon.
I annoys me at first, but I think I’ll get used to it after few days.

By: Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten

Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten — Sat, 31 May 2008 21:01:23 +0000

I don’t see this as an improvement yet. The old G was very recognizable. This is just the a ‘g’.

By: Paola Bonomo

Paola Bonomo — Sat, 31 May 2008 14:59:26 +0000

I noticed it too. Of course, no amount of cosmetic changes can make Google an underdog again.

By: Ernst-Jan Pfauth

Ernst-Jan Pfauth — Sat, 31 May 2008 12:21:59 +0000

Thanks for your insightful comment Meryn, I think you have a good point.

Also, as more and more people see Google as some sort of monopolist, it doesn’t hurt to appear humble.

Thanks for the blog tip

By: Meryn Stol

Meryn Stol — Sat, 31 May 2008 12:16:26 +0000

I don’t think this is small. This report is well-justified.

I think the little g gives a more nimble impression. It makes Google seems more like a tool, and not as corporate. It places Google nearer to Apple (who even doesn’t name its brand on its ipods) and Web 2.0 sites, and further away from Microsoft and Facebook. I think its expresses Google’s wish to first and foremost keep us searchers happy. They have a good incentive for this: Without searchers, they wouldn’t have advertising revenue. Now new competition in search is coming up, they will have to try harder to keep the influencers happy. They just can’t have us recommending a different search engine to anyone.

Now of course the change of the favicon doesn’t change all that, but I think it signals their ambition.

You may like to read Umair Haque. He often writes about the strategies of Google and Facebook: http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/haque/