Google Have Changed Their Logo, Are Letting Everyone Know About It Via An Unsettling New Video
That glitch-in-the-Matrix feeling you've had all morning? This is why.
If you’ve been on the internet for more than >1 second today already, it’s almost certain you’ve noticed The Change. Something small but fundamental in the online landscape has been tweaked, and even if you haven’t pinned it down yet it’s niggling at the back of your head, like that glitch-in-the-Matrix scene where Keanu Reeves has deja vu with the cat.
In this analogy, the command-console guy at the end is Sergey Brin *symbolism*
Most likely you know what the change is already, because there’s no realistic way you got here without using Google at some point — the search engine is rebranding itself for the umpteenth time, touching up the logo in a cheery, almost childlike font.
To document the change, Google have released one of their trademark Everything Is Fine-type video, exhaustively chronicling their achievements from modest beginnings as a humble search engine and heroically avoiding any mention of Google Plus.
That video not-so-subtly reminds anyone who watches it of the myriad ways in which Google has eased itself into our lives, and how much further it intends to go. From maps to phone operating systems to data storage to communication, we spend more real-world time with Google now than with most of our friends.
The move comes just a few weeks after the Google parent company announced it was changing its name to Alphabet, thus taking another giant step forward on the journey to becoming the generic hyper-ubiquitous, outwardly benevolent but ultimately evil super-corporation no dystopian sci-fi movie worth its salt is complete without.
In true Google style the transition is already complete, down to the smallest detail. When you open a new tab in Chrome, the little blue ‘g’ is gone, replaced by this smooth bastard:
Can you even remember what that little tab icon looked like yesterday? You would have seen it dozens of times a day — hundreds, maybe — for years, and in a week or so it’ll have all but ceased to exist in our collective consciousness. Like constantly-playing background noise, you only notice it when someone changes the tune, and it’s remarkably unsettling when you realise it’s been there all along.