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

Written on 9th June 2008                                                                                                              4 COMMENTS
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur

A 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 that’. Maybe I wasn’t the only one who thought that as Google has now challenged its audience to come up with a better Favicon.

You can ‘Submit your Google favicon idea‘ to Google until June 20, 2008. There are also some technical requirements:

resolution: 16 pixel x 16 pixel image
format: .png, .gif, or .ico
size: 5 KB
transparency: 32 bit alpha transparency

And here are a few examples that Google played with before they chose their current boring blue ‘g’:

And a few more tips & requirements from Google:

Make the shape and profile visible. We’ve found that semi-transparent graphics, specifically 32-bit alpha transparency, work best.
Incorporate some or all of the letters in “Google.”
Utilize the primary colors that are used in the Google logo. We’ve found that monochromatic designs tend to work best with blue; yellow is too light and doesn’t provide enough contrast, and red looks like an error.
Avoid being product specific. The favicon should apply well to many different Google products and devices (e.g., mobile, PC).
Be timeless. The favicon shouldn’t date itself or be time-specific. Send us a design that you think will last.

Let us know if you plan to design a Favicon too and post a link to it so we can show it here too.