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Google’s look, evolved
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- aaronbrethorst 11y agoFrom the video: "Think about how far Google has evolved from the ten blue links." I do, and it's not always a good thing. Also, I don't think I'm a fan of that new typeface. The cutesiness with the rotated 'e' on the end is sort of teeth-grating to me: it breaks up the rhythm of the rest of the wordmark.
- Lewisham 11y agoThe slanted e is a callback to the previous Google logo, which also had a slanted e.
- shas3 11y agoIt looks a bit like Circular, which has also been adopted by Alphabet (see the page source for abc.xyz), Google's parent company. Circular has been quite popular of late with many companies adapting and adopting it for their identity.
- kps 11y agoI think the Alphabet logo is based on Product Sans mentioned here https://design.google.com/articles/evolving-the-google-identity/ https://design.google.com/articles/evolving-the-google-ident... (The lower-case ‘a’ is distinctive.) I wonder whether abc.xyz will switch the body text now that the new Google style is public.
- jbellis 11y agoI'm going to miss Catull.
- malkia 11y agoFirst I thought you meant Catmull, as in Catmull curves, then I've found out that there is a font called Catull :) Thank you!
- unicornporn 11y agoMany tech companies seem to be rolling out new designs at an increasing rate rate. A bit of a side note, but I've recently been pondering for how long material design will stay with us. I'd guess when the developer for that last Jelly Beanish app in my phone has finally made the switch, Google releases their new design guidelines and the process begins again...
- spankalee 11y agoMaterial Design is more of a living standard. It's constantly being updated, clarified and expanded. They even have changelogs. I'd guess that it's extremely likely to be replaced anytime soon, but will evolve over time.
- EarthLaunch 11y agoThis reads like fashion discussion. "Skinny jeans just look better aesthetically, they'll never go out of style." Give it a few years.
- ocdtrekkie 11y agoHolo was supposed to be the unified Android design for all time, and it barely lasted two years. Even after the "Material" thing, Google has inconsistently applied it's supposed golden standard, and some Material elements, like the FAB, have actually been REMOVED from Google Keep in favor of the more Holo-esque bottom action bar, for example. Material Design will probably be suddenly replaced by something with an equally trendy name when Google needs more PR.
- stormen 11y agoI love it. Quite often logo redesign processes gets completely out of hand, but this was a significant improvement over the older version: Cleaner, more modern and beautiful in all its simplicity. Bravo!
- LandoCalrissian 11y agoYeah I think it's pretty nice too. Works really well with the material design elements for most their applications.
- sirtastic 11y agoI agree. Material design to me seemed like a great step as well. The different looks between Google products didn't seem so bad till they started to move everything over to material design and I realized how fragmented the previous designs were. Didn't even see the problem till it was fixed. slow clap
- dmix 11y ago> Didn't even see the problem till it was fixed Most design problems are this way. Even after you fix them they are often not obvious to the user despite improving the UX.
- mentos 11y agoI like the attention they brought to the angle/attitude of the 'e'. Never appreciated before how it has a friendlier feel.
- ErikHuisman 11y agoIt is pioneered by Alfred Heineken in 1954 to cheer up the brand Heineken.
- branchless 11y agoI think these things might make a small difference but overall it's not important. I view Heineken as a boring lager which has little character, probably due to being produced in industrial quantities. A jaunty 'e' isn't going to fix that. Same for google. So long as they continue to bang out appropriate search results I'm with them. Right until they don't.
- bluthru 11y agoSo how far can Google take the "kid friendly" aesthetic? Anyone remember Colorforms? http://www.liveandlearn.com/shop/images/Original_Colorforms.jpg http://www.liveandlearn.com/shop/images/Original_Colorforms....
- deveac 11y agoI was always a Lite-Brite man myself... http://i.imgur.com/8efMGD0.jpg http://i.imgur.com/8efMGD0.jpg
- raldi 11y ago2008 HN discussion from when the outgoing "little blue g" favicon was introduced: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=211518 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=211518 In it, Dustin Curtis criticizes Google (rather rightly, in my hindsight-enhanced opinion) for a Marissa-Mayeresque design process of "Make 300 logo variants with pseudorandom permutations, and then pick your favorite." Looking at those permutations now (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_7ZYqYi4xigk/SEnK37orPGI/AAAAAAAAAp4/gR3gdZ6sgbU/s1600-h/favicon_iterations.jpg http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_7ZYqYi4xigk/SEnK37orPGI/AAAAAAAAAp...) it's obvious (again, with the benefit of hindsight) that they were all very inside-the-box. Apparently nobody even considered trying a different font. This pg comment from that thread turned out to be particularly insightful, given today's news: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=211649 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=211649
- nailer 11y agoInterestingly, the blue g favicon is still there on the front page at https://www.google.com/favicon.ico https://www.google.com/favicon.ico (cache is off).
- akvlad 11y agonope, just cached https://www.google.com/favicon.ico?cache https://www.google.com/favicon.ico?cache
- Buge 11y agoIt must be cached somewhere within Google, since shift refresh doesn't update the old url and it's https.
- jszymborski 11y agofavicons cache differently. You either need to enter a different favicon address (favicon.ico?v=2) or reload and restart the browser. I know it's weird, but favicons are weird.
- roymurdock 11y agoJust when I thought we might be starting to pivot away from flat design - does anyone know of a different design paradigm that is being used by smaller/fringe designers who are tired of flat/minimal UX/UI?
- spankalee 11y agoThrowback 90's? I'm so glad we're mostly rid of useless ornamentation: endless bevels, drop-shadows, gradients, and skeuomorphism... There are many different takes on flat design, so it's not a design mono-culture. Google, Microsoft and Apple all have unique, flat, design languages.
- smoyer 11y agoBut perhaps a bit better than the '90s? It's uncluttered but everyone knows they shouldn't use <blink> and <marquee>.
- ihuman 11y agoWhat's wrong with gradients when used in a non-skeuomorphic way?
- pearjuice 11y ago>different takes on flat design Yes, they all use a different color scheme.
- kevin_thibedeau 11y agoMore like throwback 1920's when Grotesque sans fonts became commonplace for signage and inscriptions on buildings.
- Vexs 11y agoHuh, I never thought of that, how they're all so different. Microsoft uses flat, very contrasting rectangles, versus google uses rounded shapes and pastel colors.
- bcoates 11y agoJust because you don't understand what they do doesn't make them useless ornamentation.
- hodgesmr 11y agoThe G looks like a power button. Quick, someone critique that.
- sosuke 11y agoThis font fits in perfectly with the Alphabet theme. Straight out of a kids book.
- 27182818284 11y agoWait, what. At roughly the 1:34 mark, the voice pulls up photos of her kid with a pumpkin. Do you have to tag your photos with "pumpkin" first or is the recent "Choose the picture of waffles" in Recaptcha fueling that?
- bad_user 11y agoNo, they are automatically classifying photos. If you have photos in Google Photos, you can try it out with words such as "forest", or "dog", or "grill". It's pretty cool and scary at the same time :-)
- 27182818284 11y agoI did not know they were doing anything other than identifying faces that you've already tagged. Grabbing the pumpkin, whatever out of the photo is just wonderful.
- thrownaway2424 11y agoIt's even better than that. It can recognize landmarks. I can ask it "Show me pictures of myself in Paris" and it finds 25-year-old scans that I uploaded that haven't got any kind of geographic data in the EXIF.
- jegutman 11y agoYou don't even need to tag faces. It finds all the faces that have been in your photos and picks one for each to be the search "face" for that person.
- fixermark 11y agoThe technology underpinning this stuff has been brewing / percolating / developing for years [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.unveil&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and...] Automatic photos classification is just the most visible iteration of the tech.
- 11y ago
- mahouse 11y agoI'll be the first one to say it: I liked the older better. There was literally nothing wrong with it, it did not look dated at all.
- raldi 11y agoWe've been using the new logo internally for a week. Give it a day, and then go back and look at the old logo, and then tell me how dated it looks.
- ilovecomputers 11y agoMy series of responses within the span of 30 minutes: * "It looks like fridge magnets for kids! I don't like it; the iconic lower case g is gone cause of designers obsession of san-serif == modern." * "Glad that they continue to embrace their playful culture tho." * "You know what, it's growing on me." * "Haha, they tilted the e, how cute. Oh god what is happening to me!?" * "Geeze, how old is Google books? They haven't even updated the logo!"
- dekhn 11y agonah, i still prefer the old one. I've been looking at the new one for a week and I don't see it as better or worse. Just different.
- 11y ago
- ocdtrekkie 11y agoI don't know why someone changing the font in their logo should ever be HN's top news item. There is definitely more interesting stuff going on in tech this week.
- nosnos 11y agoYeah, this is stupid. Who gives a fuck?
- bingobob 11y agothey have a Doodle of the change its live now https://www.google.com.au/logos/doodles/2015/september-1st-doodle-do-not-translate-5078286822539264-hp.gif https://www.google.com.au/logos/doodles/2015/september-1st-d...
- johnchristopher 11y agoThe video reminds me of [EPIC 2014](http://idorosen.com/mirrors/robinsloan.com/epic/ http://idorosen.com/mirrors/robinsloan.com/epic/).
- artursapek 11y agoThe favicon still hasn't changed: https://www.google.com/favicon.ico https://www.google.com/favicon.ico I can't imagine the nightmare it must updating the logo for a company like Google. There must be so many forgotten places that will be missed.
- ocdtrekkie 11y agoI think they just don't worry about it. Some Google sites still look like they did six years ago. They just make sure their big sellers that they're currently marketing look new. EDIT: Can someone tell me how this comment is somehow objectionable? It's not like every app they publish on the Play Store or every site they have at *.google.com is using Material.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- swalsh 11y agoI used to work for a company that was acquired by a larger company it took us a good year before all the instances of the logo were found and replaced.
- josso 11y agoI visited Google Dublin last year and found that they still used the old beveled Google-logo for e.g. letters and papers. Not the slightly beveled logo from 2010-2013, but the old one from 1999-2010.
- dheera 11y agoThe Google app engine also still uses the beveled logo with the shadow.
- mankyd 11y agoAs of 13:33 EDT, it has. Just have to refresh.
- on_and_off 11y agoI strongly suspect that the timing of this change is not random. Android Marshmallow will probably feature it. Their design article even show how google now and voice search are supposed to look on mobile with the new logo. The change has gone very smoothly on the web, but yes I am pretty sure that in some dark corners of their least used properties, there are some forgotten logos.
- munaf 11y agoHere's a bit more info on the design process: https://design.google.com/articles/evolving-the-google-identity/ https://design.google.com/articles/evolving-the-google-ident...
- abalos 11y ago> including building a special variant of our full-color logo that is only 305 bytes, compared to our existing logo at ~14,000 bytes. That's huge for low-bandwidth users.
- robryk 11y agoWhy? This is one of the most cacheable resources. Also, it's displayed reasonably often, so I'd expect it to be rarely evicted from the device-local cache.
- mehta 11y agoEven if it isn't evicted very often, the first time it is loaded, it will be ~3 times faster, it will take up less storage thus better for others and (probably) easier to render.
- sondr3 11y agoAnd on the scale Google operates on it'll save quite a bit for them as well to serve it.
- kllrnohj 11y agoFirst impressions matter, and caches do not help with that in the slightest.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- ozmbie 11y agoIt doesn't really matter, because most of the top search results you click on will probably include 1MB of ad tracking javascript anyway.
- dummy7953 11y agoObviously this signifies that the whole "don't be evil" approach has been tossed into the memory hole.
- arianvanp 11y agoSeems very similar to the new lenovo logo
- Noonespecial2 11y agoAnd in style to the 'new' eBay logo.
- amelius 11y agoHmm... the spacing between the letters in "Goo" seems optically wider than the spacing between "gle". But it might be just me.
- equil 11y agoQuite the opposite, actually. http://i.imgur.com/bKBcIyX.jpg http://i.imgur.com/bKBcIyX.jpg [1] [1] https://design.google.com/articles/evolving-the-google-identity/#understanding-the-system https://design.google.com/articles/evolving-the-google-ident...
- amelius 11y agoYes, I said "optical" spacing. Not real spacing. The link you provide is interesting. However, any technical explanation doesn't solve the optical illusion that the last three letters appear to be closer together than the first three letters.
- kuschku 11y agoYes – that’s why normally you use serif fonts and modify the width of the strokes dynamically. Also the reason why the old 'o's were tilted.
- kenbellows 11y agoIronically, the "Goo" spacing is actually about 25% narrower that that between the "gle" characters
- cbr 11y agoThat's really a problem with the word "Google", which has round open shapes in the first half, and then a tighter second half. Perhaps "Googol" would have been better?
- dingaling 11y agoOr perhaps G∞gle...
- shiftpgdn 11y agoFor a company with so much money I find it amazing how often they turn out products with ugly/unfriendly user interfaces.
- shogun21 11y agoGoogle is putting a much greater emphasis on design, and their recent products show. What recent products are you thinking of?
- d23 11y agoI don't usually find their interfaces ugly per se; if anything I find they've made sacrifices in the user experience for the sake of making things prettier. I can't count the times Google Maps inexplicably zooms out to show me my directions to a coffee shop 10 minutes from me at the level of the entire state. Or when I type in "home" (which I have set), it suggesting I travel to a place in London called "Home Sweet Home" (I'm from the US). Or sometimes just zooming all the way out to show me my location at the global scale when I want to know what's near me.
- ArekDymalski 11y agoI'm really glad they have finally left the serif font behind. No matter how much I read about the benefits of serifs, I can't fight the immediate association: serif = old, sans-serif = modern.
- iso8859-1 11y agoThat's too simplistic, don't you agree? This is exactly why I prefer serif.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- hiou 11y agoWow, this is an very bold and risky move. The familiarity with the Google search prompt plays a significant role in user retention. Is this a sign of Google worrying about their current situation?
- compbio 11y agoIf they are worrying about this, they may have just alienated their old users. I think it is simply the result of a more design-oriented culture at Google. After Google+ tool unification, now a design unification. I myself do not like this redesign, but I also did not like the old one. I am basically very averse to changes like this (probably a mental issue). I also do not like how Chrome hijacks the window style, or how Android automatically updates to a new Youtube app with a drastically new UI. I am probably a minority though, and still capable to use custom styles to change the logo back to the old "Backrub" logo, but I wonder if there are more who see these major redesigns as an invasion of sorts into their daily routines. Just as you created a mental map of the application, they change the location of the buttons, or show a different favicon. If it is not too much to ask (or risky to maintain), think of keeping an "old.*.com" domain. There are users who will gladly make use of that. Being able to use your own design, or turn off "with this new logo we save 9999 bytes on mobile" distractions is also UX. And it would be good UX for me. With this new logo, for me, the counter now starts at zero for Google. A clean slate. For all I care they may be the Facebook they so desperately desire to mimic.
- harrumph 11y agoNot an improvement in the multicolor "G" icon - the weakest color (yellow) effectively bisects the G vertically at a hot point along the horizontal axis - hot because it's the very leftmost spot that most eyes will encounter first.
- dchichkov 11y agoNice design, but dynamic logos for two days in a row... I don't know... If anyone needs that, to disable these logos just add this URL: https://www.google.com/logos/doodles/* To your ad-block list...
- galago 11y agoI feel like we-don't-care-about-design is kind of Googles thing. The new logo seems terrible, but that's appropriate. It could be a picture of pretty much anything, or there could be no logo. Regardless, I plan to continue using Google to search the WWW.
- Aissen 11y agoIt seems they didn't update http://www.google.com/press/images.html http://www.google.com/press/images.html yet, but the doodle is available here: https://www.google.com/doodles/googles-new-logo https://www.google.com/doodles/googles-new-logo
- kanche 11y agoIt feels kiddish and playful (in a positive way)!
- zkhalique 11y agoThis is definitely good :)
- leavjenn 11y agoNot only the logo, they have changed the size of search box: http://searchengineland.com/google-adds-more-height-to-their-search-box-229474 http://searchengineland.com/google-adds-more-height-to-their...
- rayalez 11y agoOh my god, no! It's 8 pixels taller! My world is falling apart! Just kidding, I like it =)
- TazeTSchnitzel 11y agoAnd not for the first time! I remember when the buttons and search field had your OS's default button height and styling. Those days are sadly long-gone.
- kuschku 11y agoFear not! You can have the 1999 logo and search experience again right now! http://www.google.com/custom http://www.google.com/custom
- pearjuice 11y agoFirst one to guess what effect this will have on $GOOGL? I mean, after all Google does things for a profit...
- jaysonelliot 11y agoI understand why Google needed to update their identity, but it feels like this logo has gone through endless committee after committee. It doesn't actually convey any brand to me, just a very safe interpretation of Material Design. That seems short-sighted to me, since an identity typically lasts much longer than a design language.
- EarthLaunch 11y agoThe animation on google.com even implies it was designed by committee, as apparently separate hands reach up to place each letter. I thought that was funny.
- adamc 11y agoI like the 'e'; looks like it's laughing.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- ianbicking 11y agoI like it except I wish they had kept the old kind of lower case g (TIL it's called a "double story g": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G#/media/File:LowercaseG.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G#/media/File:LowercaseG.svg), there's something pleasantly unnecessary about that kind of g.
- biot 11y agoYeah I like it too. And thanks for the "double story g"... I always referred to it as "those scissor handles g": http://www.ekal.pk/barber-scissors/fancy-scissors-070s.jpg http://www.ekal.pk/barber-scissors/fancy-scissors-070s.jpg
- alblue 11y agoIt reminds me of a coloured arrow rotating backwards in time. Sort of like OSX's beachball but going the wrong way.
- ck2 11y agoWhat I still like about google is it (mostly) still works without javascript and even without cookies. Only groups is unreadable without javascript. But they recently killed the old style google maps, the new one is horrid.
- mudil 11y agoThat looks like Bauhaus font, that used to be so common for all things Atari. Here is an example: http://www.atarimania.com/2600/boxes/hi_res/yars_revenge_color_cart_6.jpg http://www.atarimania.com/2600/boxes/hi_res/yars_revenge_col... (look at the first line, with its slanted e -- like the last e in Google.) More observations on Atari Abahaus here: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/164954-deans-foods-using-atari-font-to-market-to-our-generation/ http://atariage.com/forums/topic/164954-deans-foods-using-at...
- bhauer 11y agoI love Atari, and I can see some small similarities (the capital 'G' and the lowercase 'e'). But overall, I can't say that I agree. For what it's worth, I like the Bauhaus font a bit more.
- 0xFFC 11y agoHave they used polymer for buttons in google main page? It is interesting, it kinda shows polymer will become one of google's main project's.(If i am correct)
- pdknsk 11y agoI first noticed the new logo in Google Mail, where I use the light grey theme, so the logo is grey as well, and small. My first impression was: bad, very bad. Too bold, and unbalanced. It's better on Google Search, but still somewhat unbalanced. I'll get used to it, I'm sure. I'm curious how Brand New will rate it. http://underconsideration.com/brandnew/ http://underconsideration.com/brandnew/
- ajonit 11y agoRarely it happens a design change looks good on first sight. This is that instance. Well done GOOG / abc.xyz
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- fabiobruna 11y agoI like the "Dots in Motion" language.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- runewell 11y agoAnyone else feel the need to do a parody video demonstrating how the ads have encroached on the organic link space over the years? Not hating, I actually like the new look, it was just the first thing I thought of when they mentioned the original "ten blue links".
- makecheck 11y agoOddly, I prefer the "crayon-grained" version of it that appears at the end of their home page's scribbling animation just before it turns into solid colors. The solid colors seem too "loud" to me; they should probably be pastel. I think they are more noticeable now because the letters are so thick. Also, the capital "G" looks wrong; I think the part that looks most strange is the upper curl, which doesn't seem to go far enough.
- ececconi 11y agoYou're totally right, the solid color version hurts my eyes looking at it because it's so bright and loud.
- miah_ 11y agoWho ever actually goes directly to google.com? The only way I noticed this insignificant change was in my interactions with the results page. Why does this non-news have 375 points?
- toephu2 11y agoI do. Just because you don't does that make you assume no one else does? and your actions represent every user on the internet?
- tempestn 11y agoAs you point out yourself, the Google logo exists in many places besides their homepage. (Plus many people still visit the homepage, even if you and I don't.)
- bholzer 11y agoI have my browser set to open google with every new tab.
- monochromatic 11y agoDoesn't really do anything for me one way or the other. It's fine, but so was the previous design. It's just... meh. I find myself reminded of an xkcd strip: https://xkcd.com/915/ https://xkcd.com/915/
- dammitcoetzee 11y agoIt took me a bit to find the word I wanted to use to describe what Google's old logo had vs. the new one. I think the old logo was classier. This new one is sort of uninspiring.
- KevinEldon 11y agoI don't know about the logo, but I'll do know about Google's voice recognition. Yesterday, on my commute home I came across an accident that blocked the road. I pulled out my iPhone, loaded the Google app, and asked "give me directions home" and Google gave me directions home. Siri wouldn't have been able to do that. Siri can schedule my timers... and not much else, I don't trust it to take me home. I followed the Google directions and came across a road that had a lot of traffic. I glanced at my phone and saw another road (Google Maps) and followed it and enjoyed a lovely drive down a dirt road and saved myself some time (and other waiting for me on a backed up road). I got home only a few minutes later than normal. Blah blah... I don't care about Google's logo, but I use my iPhone like a commodity and use Google's apps and services for the most important things. There are iPhone only apps I like, but when it comes to my mobile needs it's all about making calls (phone, a commodity), getting on the web (Chrome), and directions (Google Maps) dominates 2 of those 3.
- Jordrok 11y agoAs much as I want to hate this for being change just for the sake of change...I really don't. So I guess that's a point in its favor. The amount of marketing-speak in the blog post does make me a little queasy though.
- hyperpallium 11y agoThe animation crashed my android stock browser (and reset other running apps). It ran fine in firefox.
- c3534l 11y agoNone of Google's logos seem particularly good or interesting to me. From a business standpoint, pre-school style design is probably the image they want to portray; that Google is very simple and easy to use. If you're going to criticize the logo, criticize it on it's merits as a logo: giving the first impression you want to foster in it's users. Not just whether or not you think it looks prettier.
- byset 11y agoI didn't think they could make it look any more as if it were aimed at 5-year-olds, but they've done it. Seriously, though, it's probably a better logo. It's simpler and has a more weight while the old one was kind of overly light and spindly. I wouldn't be surprised if the next step in the logo's evolution would ditch the candy colors and go with a single color, in which the new logo would look just fine. That might strike some as sacrilege but it would work much better as a logo and look less like a set of plastic toys for preschoolers.
- mortenjorck 11y agoWhat's most interesting to me is not so much the logotype itself (which is nice; the tilted 'e' is the perfect sans reference to the angled stroke in Catull), but that one of the top-tier identity components is a unified loading spinner. While Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft all have their own branded spinners, Google has probably had both the most visually adventuresome and the most inconsistent spinners across all its products. Beyond unifying these, though, one can see this as a step past mere unification, and an attempt to take ownership of an unavoidable part of the cloud paradigm, latency. It's a pretty interesting move in terms of branding-UX coordination.
- digikata 11y agoMaybe they're backing the spinner with latency data collection across all their apps...
- supertruth 11y agogay
- arrowgunz 11y agoIn case the link is not working: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2015/09/google-update.html http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://...
- shade23 11y agoCompletely off topic,but can anyone point me to any google-related post which has not crossed 500 pts?
- qwtel 11y agohttps://hn.algolia.com/?query=google&sort=byDate&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?query=google&sort=byDate&prefix&page...
- therealmarv 11y agoDo not like the "Sans Serif" trend. Serifs can be good and Google looked awesome with serifs.
- tortilla 11y agoLooks like http://www.partycity.com/ http://www.partycity.com/
- Noonespecial2 11y agoNew CEO, new logo. Nothing new there. Probably changed the carpet too. They always do.
- Noonespecial2 11y agoLooks like the change that eBay did to it's logo last (?) year.
- hellbanner 11y agoGoogle's userinterface, in gmail.com, at least, has gotten progressively worse, and worse, and worse, and worse since its inception in my experience and everyone I've asked about this. ... don't know what else to say. I question if their designers use their own products. Latest bugs worth mentioning: Chrome still has an issue that can cause microphone to not work in Hangouts. Gmail.com has added a "Your plug-in google talk will no longer be supported soon" ...
- raisedbyninjas 11y agoHave they added a way to select which microphone to use yet? I mean a way to do it outside of an active call.
- DanBC 11y agoGoogle maps is incredibly frustrating to use. I can't understand what user testing they do.
- austinjp 11y agoAmen.
- brianfryer 11y agoThe loading times on Google maps are a lot higher than they used to be, for sure.
- hrnnnnnn 11y agoI recently tried OSM and was sharply reminded of how fast Google Maps used to be. OSM has almost no perceivable lag.
- thecatspaw 11y agoI never had any issue with Google maps apart from slow loading maps (which is probably my connections fault). What issues are you experiencing?
- 11y ago
- christop 11y agoI'm sure Groupon will be just thrilled to see all the Google app icons updating to contain a bold, sans-serif letter G. http://www.androidpolice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/nexus2cee_Gs-728x392.jpg http://www.androidpolice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/nexu... https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.groupon https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.groupon
- jd3 11y agoNice changes today, google! Really classy retro look! [0]. lol [0]: http://i.imgur.com/ni6pCdb.png http://i.imgur.com/ni6pCdb.png
- gnuarch 11y agoGoogle will own RGB(Y) and sue and buy ebay.
- tyingq 11y agoI can almost feel the awkward vibe that went into not directly comparing search results over the years. It would have made the demise of real organic search too obvious.
- jcadam 11y agoThe new Web UI for Google Play Music is horrendous. Sure, it looks nice, but the older interface was much simpler and easier to use (not to mention more responsive). On the new logo... just went to google.com for the first time today. Ugh, no. I winced when I saw it.
- SpendBig 11y agoThe G looks very similar to the G in the GuldenCoin logo (https://guldencoin.com/ https://guldencoin.com/)
- capkutay 11y agoWould any of the font-aficionados call this a slab-serif? There's a slight serif on the second g but other than that it looks kind of like comic sans.
- archycockroach 11y agoI'd say it falls into "geometric sans-serif" because of its adherence to primitive shapes and near-lack of adornment.
- provemewrong 11y agoThere are no serifs. The g is a typical sans-serif g like any other. Here's a slab serif g.[1] [1]: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Rockwell_sample.svg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Rockwell...
- compbio 11y agoI only noticed this when I saw it on LinkedIn side-by-side. The Microsoft logo and the Google logo are very similar in style: http://i.imgur.com/s7kR6jJ.png http://i.imgur.com/s7kR6jJ.png The blocks in the middle are the colors from both the logos.
- Nadya 11y agoI found it hard to compare colors using your blocks, so I remade your image: http://i.imgur.com/auB75fj.png http://i.imgur.com/auB75fj.png The yellow is very, very similar.
- afterburner 11y agoI ha-- I'm used to it.
- jader201 11y agoWow, Gruber's not a fan [1]. Can't say I'm surprised, but this seems harsh even coming from him. [1] http://daringfireball.net/linked/2015/09/01/google-logo http://daringfireball.net/linked/2015/09/01/google-logo
- pastyboy 11y agoUrgh preferred the original 2013 flat serif font.
- arnklint 11y agoTHIS IS HUGE! Totally worth the points, not.
- sambe 11y agoI can understand the reasons and like the dots/G but the whole word looks childish to me. Liked the old one and its longevity as well.
- mh-cx 11y agoI'm using an original Google Nexus 7 (2012 with latest Android) and try to view this page using an original Google browser (Chrome) and this is one of the few pages that make chrome crash. Same on my motorola razr i. I love it when pages that talk about “cross platform“ behave this way.
- jraedisch 11y agoSame on Vanilla Android/Chrome on Motorola G2.
- vladdanilov 11y agoI expected more attention to detail for a project this big. They are using the new logos in a few places now. All suffer from various problems. The one on the Google Official Blog (http://googleblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/google-update.html http://googleblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/google-update.html) has hinting problems most noticeably on "l" symbol (zoomed version – http://i.imgur.com/1kRZB5o.png http://i.imgur.com/1kRZB5o.png). The same with the logo on the Google Translate (https://translate.google.com/ https://translate.google.com/) and with the presented Google Logotype on the Google Design blog (https://design.google.com/articles/evolving-the-google-identity/ https://design.google.com/articles/evolving-the-google-ident..., https://g-design.storage.googleapis.com/production/v5/assets/renditions/g-logo-360@2x.png https://g-design.storage.googleapis.com/production/v5/assets...). The black SVG logo at the bottom of the last page has some unkempt figures and a leftover line. On a positive note, the logo image (http://googleblog.blogspot.ru/2015/09/google-update.html http://googleblog.blogspot.ru/2015/09/google-update.html) is well optimized with Zopfli (https://github.com/google/zopfli https://github.com/google/zopfli). However, I don't see why the new logo is smaller (from here – https://design.google.com/articles/evolving-the-google-identity/ https://design.google.com/articles/evolving-the-google-ident...). I could bring down the size of the previous one (http://i.imgur.com/lfmoqgP.png http://i.imgur.com/lfmoqgP.png) to 8 174 bytes (originally 14 022 bytes) vs 13 804 bytes for the new one. Of course, SVG versions are both much smaller.
- TazeTSchnitzel 11y agoThis reminds me of how Microsoft, when they changed their logo to a squared off Windows flag, didn't even try to hint it and it was a blurry mess everywhere.
- evolve2k 11y ago> "Google has changed a lot over the past 17 years—from the range of our products to the evolution of their look and feel. And today we’re changing things up once again" My first thought, wait who's talking to me here?
- WWKong 11y ago"evolution of [product's] look and feel"
- krick 11y agoI don't know why "news" like that are always considered so important. That logo is ugly, but so was the previous one. It doesn't seem like it terribly hurt their business. Not that I don't care about style — I admire good style. But it is secondary, at least for google. They do well with whatever logo there is.
- Gravityloss 11y agoIt's a very similar move that Facebook recently did. Move to a rounded sans serif. Facebook said it was to look more "friendly".
- dredmorbius 11y agoThe tilted 'e' immediately reminds me of Enron. You know: "Even the 'E' was crooked."
- EarthLaunch 11y agoInternet Explorer.
- pbhjpbhj 11y agoInteresting to me is that in the video they use "you can Google it" and "let's Google it". In the past they - apparently - have made pains to avoid using Google as a verb as that's a type of genericisation of the trademark in to a term for internet searching in general.
- ascorbic 11y agoThey've always been fine with people using it as a verb, as long as it's only used to mean searching with Google, not searching in general. That's what would risk genericisation.
- kuschku 11y agoWell, in German dictionaries are already listing "to google, searching in the internet for something, more specific, searching in the internet with a search engine, usually Google™." That pretty much means the trademark is essentially gone.
- lackbeard 11y agoThe logo they used from 1999 - 2010 [1] was the best. It was clear, distinctive, and pleasing to the eye. The one they used after that until 2013 was a step backwards, but not too much worse. Those two are better than the rest by a huge margin. This latest logo is... I don't have the right words. Looks daycare copy. Welcome to Google. We're not useful, we're safe. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_logo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_logo
- kossTKR 11y agoignoring all mandatory marketing gobbledygook, this change makes most sense to me in the light of google's recent involvement in the NSA scandal, and their general shift from being a search only service, to being a true conglomerate, especially spanning the futuristic fields of robotics and AI research. They don't want to be like the dystopian AI from the recent movie Ex Machina, they don't want to be seen as the omnipresent creepy spy company. Therefore this naive, happy and care free logo. Vulgar in my eyes. Most people in this thread seem to miss this?
- glitchdout 11y agoYep. It immediately reminded me of this video: https://ind.ie/the-camera-panopticon/ https://ind.ie/the-camera-panopticon/ Right in the first minute: > What if surveillance didn't look this scary? What if it actually looked pretty friendly? Could we still identify it as a threat?
- kossTKR 11y agoInteresting video. The presenter is pretty good. At 24.35 he talks about Michael Novak, Facebooks engineer manager that states: "Privacy is a set of experiences that help people feel comfortable", HAH, i love this corporate-speak. It reminds me of the way the new PR field of Content Creation, which defines itself like: http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/what-is-content-marketing/ http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/what-is-content-marketi... "Content marketing’s purpose is to attract and retain customers by consistently creating and curating relevant and valuable content with the intention of changing or enhancing consumer behavior. Basically, content marketing is the art of communicating with your customers and prospects without selling. It is non-interruption marketing. Instead of pitching your products or services, you are delivering information that makes your buyer more intelligent" Lets enhance make our buyers more intelligent. Intelligent in this context meaning, the customer buys our product. Lets give the user privacy. Privacy meaning a thin veneer of privacy on top of complete data mining.
- bsaul 11y agoGreat design, but it's funny how you can infer what a company actually is by contrast to what it's trying too hard to be. Google has a very childish logo (the doodle even emphasis that) to have the company look like a fun and happy company, whereas people fear it's going to become the next big brother. When you see it that way, it's almost an admission of guilt. No company would put so much emphasis on child imageries if it weren't fearing so much. Google is accused of controlling your life, so it's using the symbol of the exact opposite of "in control", aka small children.
- CardenB 11y agoI think you're trying a bit too hard here. Google has had this sort of branding for a long time, including pre-snowden.
- bsaul 11y agoThey went from "lively and fun" with bright colors to "childish" with the font on this latest iteration ( once again, the doodle says it all). Given the company's bank account, and the fact that we're talking about the company's main logo, i don't think this kind of evolution is only due to one designer's decision.
- zipop 11y agoYellow type on white is always bad design no matter how much the rest of the logo improves.
- TazeTSchnitzel 11y agoThis makes me sad, much like how Microsoft's logo change made me sad. Microsoft's italic bold lettering was iconic. It was the logo the company had used for the longest time, the logo that adorned their best (and their worst) products. It was a logo that everyone had seen, everyone knew, that was incredibly recognisable. And then they threw that all away, and created intentional brand confusion by swapping their logo for the Windows logo, then completely replacing Windows' logo with a grayscale tilted pane of glass. Why? Why fix what's not broken? Why replace the well-known with the unrecognisable? Google's logo, the one they used from 1999-2010, was also iconic. It was easily readable: it had a typeface made for legibility and style, not made to be mathematically simple. It contrasted well with any background. It was the logo that everyone knew. And while this particular change isn't quite so drastic as Microsoft's was, it's still strange to me. Why is it necessary? People surely won't think less of Google for sticking with the one they've used for so long. It doesn't make them look dated: they had already tweaked the hues and the drop-shadow slightly so it fits in. And the company's not headed in some radical new direction that they need to symbolically gesture about. I don't get it. I probably never will.
- jordanpg 11y agoI don't understand marketing either, but I doubt a company like Google makes a change like this until it's been focus-grouped and A/B tested ad nauseam.
- kunai 11y agoThat's exactly the problem with these sort of changes. They lack heart. They're not made because of intuition or legitimate business value, they're made to generate publicity and done in the interests of a small subset of people who use the product (in this case, focus groups, etc.). It's largely arbitrary what a company's logo looks like to me, but aesthetically this change seems largely unnecessary.
- geowwy 11y agoPeople felt the same way when Microsoft got rid of their old 80s logo. There was a 'Save the Blibbet' campaign to bring it back.
- dietlbomb 11y agoThe new favicon resembles some sort of gay pride logo. It's a bit off-putting.
- lighthawk 11y agoA critique, "Google’s new look is tragic sans": https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2015/09/01/googles-new-look-is-tragic-sans/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2015/09/01/g...
- empressplay 11y agoThe l in the new logo is shorter than the G and it's driving me bonkers! Also the spacing doesn't seem quite right.
- iceyhugh 11y agoIm almost sure that they are trying to eventually, replace the G with the E as their primary brand identifier. Its a longer strategy and probably smarter.
- savanaly 11y agoWhat's the advantage of the e?
- traviagio 11y agoA turning point in a company's history has to come with rebranding. Otherwise the message won't be as strong. The emotional attachment will fade away with time I am sure. I will miss the logo as well.
- lazzlazzlazz 11y agoI love it, especially the singular "G". Wonderfully clean and modern - even though I didn't think the old "Google" was dated at all.
- gauravagarwalr 11y agoIn some places the favicon is not completely updated, as of this writing: http://google.co.in/favicon.ico http://google.co.in/favicon.ico
- compbio 11y agoSome weird alignment with the "l" in Google. It's 2 pixels off the baseline: http://i.imgur.com/BeSYG3a.png http://i.imgur.com/BeSYG3a.png It also does not work with the country subtitle. These are touching the letter "e", perhaps showing they forgot to test this with different country names and x-height.
- sgtnasty 11y agoFolks really seem to care a lot about a silly logo.
- zmxv 11y agoI ran a survey to gauge the reaction toward the logo change and shared the results at http://blog.zmxv.com/2015/09/crowds-reaction-to-googles-new-logo.html http://blog.zmxv.com/2015/09/crowds-reaction-to-googles-new-... HN discussion thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10161043 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10161043
- compbio 11y agoI used this new logo and turned (rotated) it into a new Google Scholar logo: http://i.imgur.com/j7L0goJ.png http://i.imgur.com/j7L0goJ.png