Gopher mascot and no logo was fine. I do see - I cannot call it a trend, but multiple individual instances - of companies going from a better logo / brand image

Gopher mascot and no logo was fine. I do see - I cannot call it a trend, but multiple individual instances - of companies going from a better logo / brand image to a sometimes worse one (this is purely subjective opinion on my part, of course, not based on any objective criteria at all). Another example is Google's current logo of the company name. I don't find it attractive - flat and sort of dull. But the one they had earlier for a long time, was attractive, the colors sort of seemed to gleam or sparkle, and the overall effect was pleasing, even though the colors were the sort of primary colors you find in the kindergarten. Note: All this said just as a guy who has no UI design expertise at all, just speaking as a layman to that field.