London - Google has revealed a new logo, smoothing the text into an image that it says can more easily be read on tiny screens.
It said the redesign - its biggest since 1999 - was needed because people now used its internet search engine on lots of mobile devices as well as desktop computers.
It said Google had “changed a lot over the past 17 years” and the new logo reflected the way that users interacted with different apps and devices.
Google's emblem has seen many, mainly small, alterations since it was designed in 1998 by Sergey Brin, who co-founded the company with Larry Page. The colours were changed, the 3D letters were flattened and an exclamation mark, briefly introduced in 1999, was removed.
The latest update was unveiled a month after Google put its many divisions under the control of an umbrella company called Alphabet. The new sans-serif typeface is similar to that used by Alphabet.
However, the company said it also showed “how Google is working for you” with new elements like a colourful microphone helping users to interact with it “whether talking, tapping or typing”.
As well as the full logo of the company's name, it also plans to use four dots in its signature blue, red, yellow and green colours and a single, multi-coloured capital “G” to represent it, replacing the smaller blue “g” it currently uses.
The new look received mixed reviews. The design critic Stephen Bayley said: “This version of 'modern' looks a bit quaint. A new identity using a sans-serif font is a curiously traditional vector for so disruptive a business.”
But Mark Sinclair, deputy editor of Creative Review, said the update showed that Google had “smartened itself up”.
THE INDEPENDENT