"Without a little precaution, nor a trace of worry, you appeared just like that in my world, bringing me surprise, and I couldn't help myself."

That's right, just as the song sings, the Google you've grown familiar with suddenly changed its logo. The six letters were changed to a sans-serif font, which looks softer than before. Google calls this font "Product San".

Tamar Yehoshua, Google's vice president and product manager, said the new logo's design is "simple, clean, colorful, and friendly", mainly to adapt to the visual needs of multiple devices, while the old logo's design only considered the PC. Indeed, the old Google design did not look very clear on screens such as mobile phones and car displays; the slightly thin lines made its visual impact not very strong.

But I still believe it is to "get closer" to the design style of the "big company" Alphabet:

If we count minor logo tweaks, Google has actually changed its logo many times, but changes this big are rare.

When Google changed it in 2014, it was like this:

Google also changed it once in 2013, it was like this:

You ask where the difference is?

During the period from 2010 to 2013, flat design was not yet a trend. When Google had not yet been flattened, the logo was like this:

Many people in China have a deep impression of this logo, because after the flattening, Google had already withdrawn from China.

In fact, the logo Google used for the longest time was the three-dimensional, shadowed serif font design, which is the one below:

It was used from 1999 to 2010.

In 1998, Google Inc. was officially established, but the logo at that time...

Are you sure it's really theirs? Google even had an "!" at the end, undoubtedly to pay tribute to the then Internet giant "Yahoo!".

Based on this logo, Google's first holiday emblem, the Burning Man Doodle, was born:

However, this logo wasn't too horrible to look at yet. In 1997, when Google first appeared, it looked like this...

However, when Google was not yet called "Google"...

What does it mean to use this furry hand as a logo...

The last Google Doodle made with the 2014 version of the logo commemorated the opening of the 2015 US Open Tennis Championships:

And the first Doodle of the new 2015 logo was an interpretation of the new logo:

The biggest change in this Google logo replacement is the use of a sans-serif font.

Sans-serif specifically refers to fonts in Western languages that have no serifs, corresponding to the hei (sans-serif) typeface in Chinese fonts. Representative sans-serif fonts on computers includeArial, Helvetica on Mac (after iOS 9 and OS X 10.11, the default font of Apple devices was changed to "PingFang", which is still a sans-serif font). Unlike serif fonts. This type of font is usually mechanical and with unified lines; they often have the same curvature, straight lines, sharp corners, such as the Times New Roman we commonly see.

*One image explains the difference between sans-serif and serif fonts: on the left is a serif font, with obvious corners; on the right is a sans-serif font

It is generally believed that in traditional body text printing, serif fonts provide better readability (compared to sans-serif fonts), especially in long paragraphs; serifs add a visual reference for letters during reading. Sans-serif fonts, on the other hand, are often used in headings, shorter text paragraphs, or some popular reading materials. Some brands with a sense of history still retain serif-font logos, such as LV, Gucci, Ermenegildo Zegna, Yves Saint Laurent, and The New York Times.

Compared with the serious and formal serif fonts, sans-serif fonts give people a casual and relaxed feeling. As modern life and fashion trends change, people today prefer sans-serif fonts because they look "cleaner" and more modern. More and more logo designs use sans-serif fonts, especially among Internet companies. There are indeed not many companies like Google that have always used a serif-font design.

However, changing from a serif font to a sans-serif font also carries certain risks, because it creates a great visual impact on ordinary people. Gap, a fast-fashion brand beloved by the American people, suddenly changed its logo in October 2010, and it at once replaced the old blue-background white-text logo that had been used for more than 20 years. The most noticeable change was from a serif font to a sans-serif font. However, this sudden decision quickly turned into a public relations disaster in the time that followed. Social networks were flooded with complaints about Gap's new trademark. Just 11 days later, Gap decided to switch back to the old logo.

Among Internet companies, there are also many that changed from serif to sans-serif fonts. Most of them did not cause controversy; instead, people felt the company became younger, for example:

From: TECH2IPO