What's wrong with Google's new icon?

Some time ago, Google released a new logo, which caused widespread discussion. Looking at its past logo fonts, we will be reminded of literature, newspapers and even print, which really gives people a faint sense of history. In the past, the logo letters used old-fashioned serif fonts, giving people a subtle sense of authority: a firm and dignified "G", two stable and attractive small "o", a lovely print font "g", an elegant "l" and a thoughtful "e".

Although Google's new logo retains the traditional rainbow colors, it seems to have removed all the adult elements. Now, it easily reminds us of sticky notes on the refrigerator, McDonald's French fries, and the "Comic Sans" font in the Windows system. The new logo takes away the trust and nobility of Google. The new logo has a flat and boring "G", two "oo"s that look like owl eyes, a "g" that looks like a blackboard, a dull "l", and a slightly frivolous "e" (it is also worth mentioning that this e is almost the same as the e in the Lenovo logo).

But what can we say? Google is now an indispensable search tool in our lives. It is a "benevolent" overlord and the industry leader. Now, Google symbolically clears the trust of users, but trust is precisely the real reason why users use Google in the first place.

In fact, before Google became a technology giant, the word "google" did not have much meaning. It was derived from "googol", which means 10 to the 100th power, a huge astronomical number. In 1938, when American mathematician Edwards Kasner defined such a large number and prepared to name it, his nine-year-old nephew Milton Sirotta expressed his opinion: "Such a large number must be named Googol." Googol was named after this, which contains mathematics, precocity and fantasy.

Another use of the word "Google" is in the comic strip "Barney Google and Snuffy Smith", which features a guy in a top hat who loves to sing and has big googly eyes. In short, whether it's Google, googol, or googly, all sound very interesting and innocent, and are easily associated with childhood and imagination.

When Google was born in the 1990s, it wanted to differentiate itself from other search engines by being smart and friendly. Other search engine websites were not only cluttered with useless data, but also very inefficient in function and had inaccurate search results. America Online was a classic failure: stupid email, huge data structure, and overpriced service fees. All of this made it have no advantage over its competitors (Yahoo, HotBot, Netscape, Ask Jeeves, etc.).

Google’s design is a revelation, confident enough that it doesn’t need the clutter of email and management services. The white background, bright colors, traditional fonts, and the Google logo on the computer screen are amazing. The logo plays a very important role. Google’s design, like its website, does not treat users with a superior attitude. When you open the website, it seems to say to you: Relax, we are smart and reasonable, and we have integrated people and machines very wisely. Let us help you find what you need.

Google was a miracle that electrified the Internet. Its search results were not only fast, but also extremely accurate, not to mention prioritized. Overnight, the Internet was completely changed. The Internet used to be like a dazzling, huge universe of data. But with Google, it became a fully cataloged "library", a logical and coherent place. We need a leader to lead us into the future, and that leader is Google, which, like the Brooklyn Bridge, represents a great victory of creativity and engineering.

There was a time when I would have clicked on sponsored links on Google search results, helping it make money. In fact, sometimes I instinctively have to remind myself not to do it. Around 2002, my good friend Alice dressed up as the Google logo for Halloween, with a button that said "Feeling Lucky". Alice herself no longer remembers this, but I promise that if Gmail had existed at the time, I would have left evidence.

When Google launched Gmail in 2004, we were all very excited because we all felt that Google was finally going to apply its genius to email. At that time, email services were very poor. We often received spam, and web-based email services (such as Hotmail) were inconvenient to operate. But there was one thing that really scared me at the time, because we heard that Google would obtain user information and use it to target ads. At that time, Alice and I were quite funny and sent each other some emails involving a lot of keywords such as spaceships, ice cream, owls, and Hawaii. We hoped that one day we would receive ads in this regard.

The result is predictable. In fact, we don't need to worry about Google sending spam promotional ads. Google is now very smart and powerful, and it already has many platforms, including Android, translation, Chrome, Google Maps, Google Earth, and self-driving cars. User trust, an exciting moment, gratitude and excitement, all of these can be maintained on Google products.

So you might think, why is Google rebranding at this time? When I saw the weirdly changing rainbow-colored "G" on my bookmark bar, I suddenly felt disgusted and began to distrust the brand. It felt like Philip Morris Tobacco Company changed its name to Altria. (Note: In January 2003, in order to establish a diversified business structure, Philip Morris, the owner of Marlboro cigarettes, officially changed its name to Altria Group. The group's business areas are clearly divided into three major areas: tobacco, food and financial services. Philip Morris, which is full of tobacco flavor, changed its name to Altria, which was once considered to be an attempt to whitewash its bad reputation.)

Google said in its statement that the change of logo is part of its new brand identity and logo family, and even the smallest screen can display their new logo. But the question is, are the serif fonts of the past so bad? Intuitively, I don’t care about Google’s so-called brand consistency, especially after they reorganized their new parent company Alphabet.

We like the old logo, we like the old Google, we don't care what Google does, no matter what its intentions are, it should maintain the love of users. So, in the name of love, let's go back to the previous font design. Let the beautiful old serif font come back to us, and we promise that we will accept all the other new things Google does, and it doesn't matter if self-driving cars surround us.