DHAKA: The search giant on Tuesday unveiled a new logo a few weeks after surprising the world with a massive restructuring that would put Google under a holding company called Alphabet.
Among the changes: Its hues are flatter, and it closely resembles Alphabet's logo, particularly with sans-serif styling, meaning its letters don't have any flourishes. Despite the update, though, it's still playful and uses the same colors as the previous design, reports cnet.com.
The logo change is just the latest move by Google acknowledging it's a far different company than the search website founded in 1998. The Mountain View, Calif., company has since gone on to build software for smartphones and tablets, launch balloons that beam Internet signals across the globe, design smart eyeware and even prototype self-driving cars.
The logo change isn't merely symbolic, however. When Google was first created nearly two decades ago, it was meant for desktop computers. Now, people are accessing the Web through everything from smartphones to tablets to smartwatches. This new logo, Google said, will be easier to read on small devices, and a better complement to its new mobile-friendly "G" icon.
"These days, people interact with Google products across many different platforms, apps and devices -- sometimes all in a single day," wrote Tamar Yehoshua, a vice president in product management, and Bobby Nath, director of user experience.
This isn't the first time Google has updated its look. The company has done it six times since co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin started the company as Stanford University graduate students. Each change has been a refinement, focused on following Web trends and making the name more readable on newly popular devices.
The logo isn't the only look Google has been refining. Last year, the company unveiled a sweeping design update for Android, the Google-made software that powers more than 80 percent of the world's smartphones. Called Android Lollipop, the new software included an aesthetic the company called "material design," which puts a bigger emphasis on a 3D look and animations. The goal, Google said, was to unify the look and feel of the software across all kinds of devices.
Other tech giants have recently made high-profile logo changes as well. In July, Facebook updated its logo with a slimmer look that would show up better on smartphones. In 2013, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer changed Yahoo's logo, a year after taking over.
BDST: 1131 HRS, SEP 02, 2015
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