Google’s move this morning torebrand Bard as Geminicame as something of a surprise — at least, if youweren’t following the rumor mill. Whether or not it’s enough to fully cement Gemini as a ChatGPT competitor in the minds of regular users remains to be seen, but thevideo announcementmight be hinting at core changes to Google’s identity still to come. Watch through to the end of today’s upload, and you’ll spot what appears to be a new logo, seemingly set to mark the era of AI.
Right as today’s Gemini video wraps up, we’re greeted by a new animation, showcasing the sparkle-shaped iconography Google’s been using for its AI products transforming into the classic G favicon. It’s not the first time we’ve seen these elements blend together, but itisthe first time we’ve seen a G logo that does away with its segmented red, blue, yellow, and green elements, instead opting for something that blurs its primary colors together. In effect, it looks like a more modern approach to Google’s pre-existing branding.
I don’t want to oversell the branding changes here — at the end of the day, the G logo shown at the end of today’s video remains the letter G highlighted by four main colors. That said, from the animation to the blending of its colors, this is undoubtedly something new for the company. I dug through Google’s YouTube channel — which, we should mention, still uses the old G logo with four segmented colors — to see if I could find other examples of this specific look, to no avail.
As recent as three weeks ago, the typical logo you’ve seen for years appeared at the end of aCircle to Search promo. Likewise, the majority of Google’s uploads relating to Bard or Gemini either end without any kind of iconography or use the standard four color variant. If this is indeed an eventual rebranding for the company’s favicon, it would be its first since 2015, nearly a full decade ago.
We reached out to Google for comment on exactly what this change represents for the company, and a spokesperson confirmed that, at least at this time, there are no changes planned for a full rebrand across its platform. Still, this seems simultaneously too small of a change to be a one-off redesignandtoo specific to be an accident, especially since it hasn’t appeared in AI-related promos previously. Keep an eye out for this favicon moving forward — with I/O just three months out, anything is possible.
