Revert to Google's 2013-2015 Favicon
(image at bottom)
APPLIES TO ALL Google websites that got the new favicon on Sept 1, 2015: Google Web Search, Image Search, Video Search, Patent Search, Accounts Login, My Account, Google Books, Google Photos, Google Shopping, and Google Trends (using either "http://" or "https://" address protocol). The trailing "*" at the end of "include" URLs in the UserScript metadata block should cover all country-identified URLs. Over two dozen Google sites that had individualized favicons will NOT be reverted in the new Version 3.x+ of this user script, due to the use of targeted "exclude" URLs in the UserScript metadata block (for those sites whose URLs followed the pattern that an "include" URL would have reverted).
("Applies to" at top of page was auto-generated by the website - it is neither descriptive enough, nor editable by me).Detailed Google sites' favicons treatment is discussed in the NOTES section at the bottom, and a very detailed text-table screenshot of "Sites/URLs/Favicons" is included among the images at the bottom.
Google's Sept 1, 2015 Favicon Fiasco (ugly, and annoyingly visible new favicon design) inspired this "Greasemonkey" user script for the Firefox web browser. It reverts all Google favicons - on Tabs, Bookmark Menu, Bookmark Toolbar, and "Address Bar/URL Bar/Location Bar" - on all Google websites that got the new favicon - to the previous 2013-2015 Google favicon (white lower-case "g" in blue square - image at bottom).
This user script can be installed in Firefox with 1-click (the green "Install This Script" button at the top of this page) - IF the Firefox user script manager add-on "Greasemonkey" is first installed. I have thoroughly tested this user script in Firefox - it works perfectly, and has gotten an automatic update from Greasy Fork镜像, also.
It should also work as a "Tampermonkey" user script for other browsers - Google Chrome, Opera Next, Safari, Dolphin Browser or UC Browser - but this had not been tested by me. If anyone tests this as a "Tampermonkey" user script in another browser, I'd appreciate a message informing me of results - I don't use any of the browsers mentioned in this paragraph.
If you don't have a "Greasemonkey" or "Tampermonkey" user script manager, they, too, are easy installs...
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/greasemonkey/ (for Firefox - 1-click install)
https://tampermonkey.net/ (select tab near page top for your browser - Chrome, Opera Next, Safari, Dolphin Browser or UC Browser)
On about Sept 1, 2015, Google changed their Favicon. About one day later, a "Greasemonkey" user script was released by "Anonymous" -
"Revert Google's Favicon 1.0". It was even promoted in a YouTube video - before the poster closed his YouTube account a few days later, and the video was deleted. But it had errors in the "include" URLs - it did NOT work on URLs such as "books.google.com".
Additionally, a "Stylish" user style was released ("Google Search Icon Restorer"), but it also has a shortcoming that has not been addressed (as of the time this was written) - it did NOT replace the ugly new Google favicon in the Address Bar (but it does on Browser Tabs). I was upset enough about the Address Bar favicon problem, I didn't take the time to find out if it reverted Bookmark favicons. I gave the style a negative review on UserStyles.org because of the Address Bar favicon non-reversion. I was so inpatient for a fix that I didn't wait for the user style's author to address my private message to him about it, and perhaps fix it - I began working on my own fix. His work was otherwise very good, and he brilliantly gives the user of a choice of five Google favicons from which to choose (going all the way back to 1999) - although only 1 of the 5 can be installed (must be chosen prior to installation), and it is locked-in (another comment I made in my review). His animated GIF showing the 5 Google favicons available to choose from with his user style is good work, showing the historical progression of 5 Google favicons over the last 16 years. The GIF on the "Google Search Icon Restorer" author's UserStyles.org page (link below) inspired me to create a modified GIF. Mine adds the years each of 5 Google favicons was used, and a main caption (both in red text), plus the "Historical Animation" caption at the top (animation below - click to enlarge). I also eliminated the inter-logo fades and shortened the 5 logo dwell times to 3 seconds each. (NOTE: You might want to check out his style (link below), especially if you turn "Off" display of Address Bar website favicons - via the Firefox Add-On "Classic Theme Restorer" - which would eliminate any Address Bar favicon distraction. ("Classic Theme Restorer" also allows reverting any or all Firefox "Australis" theme changes that began with FF29).
https://userstyles.org/styles/118366/google-search-icon-restorer
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/classicthemerestorer/
The user script on this page corrects the shortcomings - in both previous "Greasemonkey" user script and "Stylish" user style. The "Greasemonkey" user script on this page has been thoroughly tested, and works for all Google domains tried (due to the highly targeted "include" and "exclude" domains in the UserScript metadata block) - AND for all Google favicon locations (see NOTES below).
----- Enjoy! -----By the way, both the "Greasemonkey" user script and "Stylish" user style referred to above (that had shortcomings) were released
Sept 2, 2015 - only one day after Google's VERY ugly new favicon was introduced...
I'm not the only person who hates the "new, but not improved" Google graphics - or was immediately inspired to get rid of it.
The new Google favicon was just TOO UGLY for me! After failing to find a cure with existing mods (Greasemonkey or Stylish) for the Google favicon fiasco, I developed my own fix, only 4 days after their new favicon introduction - that's how incensed I was!
Google also changed their homepage logo the same day - to a very childish monstrosity (there are numerous negative online comments about the logo change, also). Some "Stylish" user styles already exist to revert to Google's old homepage logo, on the white background:
https://userstyles.org/styles/118315/google-old-logo (Reverts to pre Sept 1, 2015 Google logo on white background)
https://userstyles.org/styles/118348/old-google-logo-circa-2010 (Reverts to pre Sept 1, 2015 Google logo on white background)
The two user styles above were created 9/01/2015 and 9/02/2015 - the day of, and day after, Google's change.
Immediate revulsion leads to immediate reversionary tactics.
For over a year, I've used the "Stylish" user style "Black Google by Panos", which beautifies Google's homepage with a shaded, shadowed, and slightly mirrored multi-color Google logo on a black background. Therefore, using Panos' user style immunized me from the new Google homepage logo. I've included a screenshot below (click to enlarge) of Google's homepage with "Stylish" user style "Black Google by Panos" enabled (center detail only, to enlarge the thumbnail image information).
The NOTES section below has a blurb on "Stylish", with download links for it, as well as the "Black Google by Panos" user style.
NOTES:• Once this user script is installed - or "enabled" AFTER being "disabled" - already-open Google webpages need to be Refreshed (F5), and all pre-existing Google bookmarks that picked up the newer Google favicon have to be revisited, to complete the favicon reversion.
• ALL Google favicon locations - "URL Bar/Address Bar/Location Bar", "Web Browser Tabs", "Bookmark Menu" and "Bookmark Toolbar" - will be reverted to the Google favicon used before the Sept 2015 change, to the white lower-case "g" in a blue square (image below).
• NOTE: In the previous Versions 2.x of this user script, ALL sites with "google" in their URLs were reverted to the 2013-2015 favicon. When I discovered how many Google sites had individualized favicons that were not changed over to the new favicon (over two dozen - specifics immediately below), and should not have been reverted, highly targeted "include" and "exclude" URL metadata block was added to preserve those individualized favicons). Use of both "http://" and "https://" address protocols, as in Version 2.x, continues, as well as asterisks at the end of URLs that should cover cover all country-identified URLs.
According to the "include" and "exclude" URLs written into this UserScript metadata block (as of Version 3.x):* ALL sites THAT GOT THE NEW GOOGLE FAVICON will be reverted: Google Web Search, Image Search, Video Search, Patent Search, Accounts Login, My Account, Google Books, Google Photos, Google Shopping, and Google Trends.
* The following sites that have their own, INDIVIDUALIZED FAVICONS will NOT be reverted (will KEEP THEIR FAVICONS): Google Calendar*, Google Cloud Print*, Google Contacts, Google Code (had no favicon, gets no favicon), Google Developers, Google Docs, Google Drawings, Google Drive*, Google Earth*, Google Finance*, Google Forms, Google Hangouts, Google Groups, Google Keep, Google Maps*, Google News, Google Play, Google Plus (Google+), Google Scholar, Google Sheets (Spreadsheets), Google Sites, Google Slides (Presentation), Google Store, Google Translate, Google Voice*, and Google Wallet. Also, 4 Google-affiliated sites are unaffected by this user script (their favicons are unchanged by it), since they do NOT have "google" in their URLs: Blogger ("https://www.blogger.com"), Gmail ("https://www.gmail.com"), Panoramio ("http://www.panoramio.com"), and YouTube ("https://www.youtube.com").
"Asterisked" items above WOULD lose their individual favicons and be reverted - as they were in Version 2.x - IF NOT FOR the "exclude" URLs included in the Version 3.x UserScript metadata block. (IF Google changes site URLs in the future, the metadata block may need to be edited to compensate for URL changes - either for "include" or "exclude" URLs.
There is a detailed Google Site / URL / Favicon Description text-table screenshot included in the images below. Click the thumbnail for a larger popup - still not as readable as doing the following:
* Right-click the POP-UP image and click "View Image" - the full-size 930 x 910 pixel image will open in a new window (if you have the "NoScript" add-on in Firefox, this may require allowing not only the "gf.qytechs.cn" javascript, but also both "newrelic.com" and "indeed.com", plus left-right navigation or more than one right-click on the pop-up BEFORE the "View Image" context menu option appears - something appears buggy about the Greasy Fork镜像 full-size image access).
As a workaround, consider the use of the Firefox add-on "Thumbnail Zoom Plus" - after holding the mouse cursor stationary over the pop-up image a few seconds, the full-size 930 x 910 pixel original opens onscreen in a "Thumbnail Zoom" pop-up - this eliminates the need to right-click and "View Image". But the full-size "Thumbnail Zoom" image pop-up disappears as soon as the mouse cursor leaves the image of interest. ("Thumbnail Zoom Plus" is VERY useful on so many websites to speed enlarged image previewing, such as Google Image search results - virtually all webpage thumbnails, in fact - that I consider it a must have. It is quicker and less buggy than the defunct "CoolPreviews" ever was).
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/thumbnail-zoom-plus/ (Thumbnail Zoom Plus - 1-click install)
• [I (somewhat) apologize for the verbose TL;DR character of my post - but I wanted to encourage newbies to consider jumping into user scripts and user styles, if they were unfamiliar with the territory. I am evangelizing against an ugly web, and for a user-inspired and user-modified better web. If some of our work informs and inspires the mainstream web designers to get a clue (hear me Google?), our efforts might be rewarded.]
• If you're a fan of Google "doodles" and other special, topical logos - they also get replaced on the homepage if the "Black Google by Panos" user style is enabled. However, if you click the "Stylish" logo (by default it gets placed at the lower left of the browser window, in the Add On Bar/Status Bar), and then toggle Panos' style "Off", you immediately see the homepage unmodified.
• "User styles" and "Stylish" (user style manager) is to CSS as "user scripts" and "Greasemonkey" (user script manager) is to JavaScript. (The "Stylish" add-on is a pre-requisite for installation of user styles for "Stylish"). "Greasemonkey" uses JavaScript user scripts to modify target webpages, while "Stylish" uses CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) user styles to modify target webpages. All users should consider using BOTH user scripts and user styles to modify display of their favorite webpages in their browser - many thousands of free user scripts and user styles are available to do just that.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/stylish/ ("Stylish" user style manager, 1-click install)
https://userstyles.org/styles/61377/black-google-by-panos ("Black Google by Panos" Google homepage dark theme, 1-click install):
(screenshot below)• This user script's installed filename:
Revert_to_Googles_2013-2015_Favicon.user.js