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1996–1997 1997–1998 1998 1998–1999
1996–1997 1997–1998 1998 1998–1999
1999–2010 2010–2013 2013–2015 2015–present
1999–2010 2010–2013 2013–2015 2015–present

Google is an American internet-technology company based in Mountain View, California. Founded as a search engine, Google focuses on developing everyday technologies for the consumer, ranging from browsers to smartphones to video uploading services. As the largest subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., Google has an international presence in the technology market, being known by billions.

BackRub

1996–1997

BackRub logo 1996
Designer:  Unknown
Typography:  Impact
Launched:  Unknown

Google was originally launched as BackRub in 1996.[1][2][3]

Google

1997–1998

Google 1997
Designer:  Carl P.
Typography:  Arial Black
Launched:  1997

BackRub was renamed to Google in 1997. This logo, based on a default WordArt preset, was used during Google's developing stage at Stanford University, but Google wasn't an official company yet.

1998–1999

1998

Google 1998
Designer:  Unknown
Typography:  Berthold Baskerville Bold
Launched:  July 1998

In July 1998, the logo's color scheme was finalized, with the uppercase "G" and the "l" in green, the first "o" and the "e" in red, the second "o" in yellow, and the lowercase "g" in blue, and the logo started using a new font known as Baskerville Bold. This logo was created using the free graphics program GIMP. This logo, however, was very short-lived and would be replaced within the same year.

1998–1999

Google 1998-2
Designer:  Larry Page
Typography:  Berthold Baskerville Bold
Launched:  September 4, 1998

On September 4, 1998, the uppercase "G" at the beginning of the wordmark was colored blue, the logo is a bit smaller, the logo is now floating instead of indented in, the letters now have different hues and are more rounded, and an exclamation point was added at the end of the wordmark, possibly to mimic the Yahoo! logo.

This logo appears as an easter egg if you search "Google in 1998", complete with the old interface from the said year, save the bottom page numbers, as they use the letters from the next logo. For the color scheme, the company used primary colors for all the letters, except for the green "l", which is a secondary color. This "brought back the idea that Google doesn't follow the rules".

1999–2015

1999–2010

Google logo 1999-2010
Logopedia InfoWhite SVG NEEDED
Designer:  Ruth Kedar
Typography:  Catull BQ
Launched:  May 31, 1999

On May 31, 1999, Google introduced a new logo designed by Ruth Kedar. A new typeface called Catull BQ (an old-style serif typeface designed by Gustav Jaeger for the Berthold Type Foundry in 1982) was introduced as the font for the logo, and the exclamation point was removed. This remained the basis for the logo until August 31, 2015, and is arguably the most familiar and popular logo on the Internet, due to it lasting for 11 years. On very old/outdated browsers (such as IE5 and older), this logo is still used instead of the newer one below.

2010–2013

Google logo 2010 3D
Logopedia InfoWhite SVG NEEDED
Designer:  Unknown
Typography:  Catull BQ
Launched:  November 2009 (preview)
May 6, 2010 (official)

The first change to the Google logo in 11 years was first previewed in November of 2009[4], and was officially launched on May 6, 2010. It utilizes an identical typeface to the previous logo, but the "o" is distinctly more orange-colored in place of the previously more yellowish "o", as well as a much more subtle shadow rendered in a different shading style, and brighter lettering.

2013–2015

Google 2013
Designer:  Unknown
Typography:  Catull BQ (modified)
Launched:  September 19, 2013

The logo was given a two-dimensional effect to blend in with Google's most recent products, also foreshadowing the introduction of the Material Design language the following year. This logo was first introduced on September 19, 2013, but was previewed a week prior.[5] Some subtle differences include serifs with straightened acute angles on the uppercase "G," a straighter "l", a straighter angle on the lowercase "g" and a connected horizontal bar on the "e". The old 2010 Google logo remained in use on some pages and services, such as Google Doodles, Google Finance, Google Sites, Google News, Google AdWords, Gmail and Google Map Maker for a period of time. This logo is still used on older versions of devices.

2015–present

Google 2015
Designer:  In-house
Typography:  Product Sans (modified)
Launched:  September 1, 2015

On September 1, 2015, Google introduced a new logo with an entirely new font for the first time in 16 years. Another notable change to the wordmark was that the lower-case 'g' is now single-story opposed to Catull's double-story approach. It has a different color palette and the gradients were dropped from the logo. Like before, the previous logo was still used for some time on certain pages, including Google Play, before it followed up with this logo.

The redesign was mainly influenced by a trend with technology companies simplifying their logos to make them more recognizable on the growing number of electronic devices which use their services. With this redesign, a new typeface called Product Sans was introduced as the font for the logo to be used on Google Apps, a refresh of the green, yellow and red colors used on the wordmark to better contrast each other, and a smaller image size change from 14,000 bytes to 302 bytes to suite low bandwidth areas (a size-optimized version known as Google Sans was later created in 2018). Additionally, this redesign likely pertains to the then-recent launch of Alphabet Inc. a few weeks prior, whose logo carries relatively the same font as this logo.

Like the original logos, the "e" in the logo is tilted (as emphasized by the nudge it's given in the Google Doodle and intro video) as a reminder that Google "will always be an unconventional company". The new logo is also accompanied by a new favicon, changed from a lowercase "g" to an uppercase "G" (which was also used in the Google favicon from 1999-2008) sporting the colors of the main wordmark. Another new branding asset introduced with the rebrand is a set of circles colored with the colors of the wordmark which act as a method of communicating with the user in Google's search app.

References

  1. How we started and where we are today - Google.
  2. Origin of the name "Google".
  3. McAlone, Nathan. The true story behind Google's hilarious first name: BackRub. Business Insider.
  4. Collins, Barry (27 November 2009). New-Look Google Gets The Blues. Alphr. Retrieved on November 24, 2021.
  5. Chitu, Alex (10 September 2013). Google Tests a New Logo. Google Operating System. Retrieved on November 24, 2021.

External links

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