Revert to Google's Old 2012-2015 Favicon
The "Revert" favicon's blue color was darkened (gamma decreased, color saturation increased) before conversion to Base64 code for the User Script.
The enlarged favicon (above right) is the final edited version.
("Applies to" at the top of this page was auto-generated by the website - it is neither accurate, descriptive enough, nor editable by me)...
APPLIES TO: ALL Google websites (and only those) THAT GOT THE NEW FAVICON on Sept 1, 2015, including:
Google Web Search, Image Search, Video Search, Patent Search, Google Books, Google Photos, Google Shopping, Google Trends, Cached Google Web Search, Google Accounts Login, My Account (myaccount.google.*), Google About Me/Profile (aboutme.google.*), Google Search Help (support.google.*), Google Official Blog, and Google Custom Search (cse.google.* - linked from embedded Google Search Boxes in non-Google webpages) - using both "http://" and "https://" address protocols. There may be Google URLs that got the new favicon that I'm not yet aware of - I update the "@includes" metadata for this script every time I discover a new one (or will do so, if anyone contacts me about a newly discovered one). The trailing "*" at the end of "@include" URLs in the user script metadata block should cover most country-specific URLs. Over two dozen Google sites that have different, site-specific favicons that differ from the new 2015 Google Search favicon do NOT have their favicons changed by Version 3.x+ of this user script, due to the use of targeted "@exclude" URLs in the user script metadata block (for those sites whose URLs followed a pattern that an "@include" URL would have reverted).
• Once this user script is installed - or "enabled" AFTER being "disabled" - already-open Google webpages need to be Refreshed (F5), and all preexisting Google bookmarks that picked up the newer Google favicon have to be revisited, to complete the favicon reversion.
Google uses approximately 50 different sites for far-ranging services other than Search - and several dozen favicons - detailed in the text table at bottom. The sites are shown with their icons on Google's webpage, http://www.google.com/intl/en/about/products/ (which looks better on a black background, as rendered with a "dark-theme Google" Stylish user style - more below).
Version 2.x of this script unfortunately changed all Google favicons for sites having "google" anywhere in their URL... (Sorry about that!)... I was unaware of the number of Non-Search, site-specific favicons Google uses - and that only about a dozen Google URL patterns (mostly search-related) were changed to the new favicon Sept 1, 2015.
Version 3.x of this user script changes ONLY those sites that got the new Search favicon introduced Sept 1, 2015. All Google sites shown on Google's ".../about/products/" page (linked above) were visited, their URLs and icon descriptions were recorded in a text table (embedded at the bottom), and the data obtained was used to formulate this user script's metadata block's "@include" and "@exclude" URL entries. After I installed v3 of this script, all sites were revisited, and it was confirmed all Google sites with non-new, site-specific favicons have them preserved, while all sites with the new favicon are reverted to the previous 2012-2015 favicon. The use of "*" wildcards in the "@include" and "@exclude" URL entries in the user script metadata block accommodate both "http://" and "https://" address protocols. The "*" wildcards at the end of URLs should cover most country-identified URLs.
There's a "Detailed List of Google Sites - Reverted and Not Reverted" in the NOTES section at the bottom.Google's Sept 1, 2015 Favicon Fiasco (ugly, and annoyingly visible new favicon design - image at bottom) inspired this "Greasemonkey" user script for the Firefox, Chrome, and perhaps other web browsers (if they have user script manager plugins, as Firefox and Chrome do). 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 2012-2015 Google favicon - a white lower-case "g" in blue square (image at very top of this description, and 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 gets automatic updates from GreasyFork.org.
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.
UPDATE: This script DOES WORK WITH CHROME BROWSER, per user comment Sept. 15, 2015. (Click "Feedback" tab at top of this page, AND CLICK ON "Doesn't work on chrome" - THEN see the same user's second, correction Comment). He states in his second Comment post,
"...it actually does work, was a bit of a user error that I made, haha. Apologies for the false alarm, it works great. Thanks again for your excellent work! I really despise the new google icon."
(As to Christopher's comment that, "I really despise the new Google icon," I say - "Right on, brother, right on!")
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/ Greasemonkey for Firefox - 1-click install (has 1.25 million Firefox users)
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tampermonkey/dhdgffkkebhmkfjojejmpbldmpobfkfo?hl=en Tampermonkey (Chrome Web Store)
https://tampermonkey.net/ Tampermonkey homepage (select tab near page top for your browser: Chrome, Opera Next, Safari, ...
Dolphin Browser or UC Browser)
Works in Firefox and Chrome Web Browsers (and most likely others, with proper user script manager - see above)
As stated above, on 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", and others.
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 gave the style a negative review on UserStyles.org because of the Address Bar favicon non-reversion. I was so inpatient for a solution 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 immediately began working on my own fix. The author did reply to me - on the same day I finished my "Greasemonkey script (9/07/2015): "Thank you for your detailed report, I hadn't checked that this user style doesn't apply to other parts of the browser, my bad. Indeed this CSS affects only the tabs. I'm not fully sure if it is technically possible to change all occurring references of the Google favicon in all parts of Firefox via a Stylish user style, otherwise the only solution will be via a more advanced Greasemonkey script..." His webpage on UserStyles.org - link below - now states "KNOWN ISSUES: This user style only overrides the favicon displayed in the tabs, it doesn't replace the Google favicon in other parts of the browser." (HOWEVER, his conclusion is overstated - since (according to my testing), his user style DOES override Bookmark icons, replacing them with the icon installed by his style. 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). The animated GIF on his webpage showing the 5 Google favicons available to choose from to be installed with his user style is good work, showing the historical progression of 5 Google favicons over the last 16 years. That GIF on the "Google Search Icon Restorer" author's UserStyles.org page (link below) inspired me to create a modified GIF (animation posted below - click to enlarge). My GIF adds the years that each of the 5 Google favicons was used, and a main caption (both in red text), plus the "Historical Animation" caption at the top. I also eliminated the inter-logo fades, and lengthened the 5 logo dwell times from about 2 seconds each 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. (If you use "Classic Theme Restorer", AND turn off the Address Bar favicon (via "Classic Theme Restorer" Settings > "Location Bar" (left-pane "tab") > UNCHECK "Favicon: current website's icon"), his script works just fine, even seeming to respect Google's non-Search site-specific icons, which his style appears to not revert (only tested on two sites). "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/ "Google Search Icon Restorer"
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/stylish/ "Stylish" User Styles Manager for Firefox
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stylish/fjnbnpbmkenffdnngjfgmeleoegfcffe?hl=en "Stylish" User Styles Manager for Chrome
https://extensions.apple.com/details/?id=com.sobolev.stylish-5555L95H45 "Stylish" User Styles Manager for Safari (1)
http://sobolev.us/stylish/ (Author's site - details and version history not on Apple.com, above) "Stylish" User Styles Manager for Safari (2)
https://addons.opera.com/extensions/details/stylish/ "Stylish" User Styles Manager for Opera
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/classicthemerestorer/ "Classic Theme Restorer" for Firefox
The user script on this page corrects the shortcomings - in both previous "Greasemonkey" user script and "Stylish" user style. The new "Greasemonkey" user script on this page has been thoroughly tested, and works for all Google websites (about 50) (most listed in my text-table, screenshot image below) - due to the highly targeted "@include" and "@exclude" domains in the user script metadata block. And it works for all Google favicon locations - on Browser Tabs, Address Bar / Location Bar / URL Bar, and for (Menu and Toolbar) Bookmarks (see NOTES below).
[By the way, as far as I know, Stylish User Styles do not accept the "*" wildcard in their "@-moz-document domain", "@-moz-document url", or "@-moz-document url-prefix" statements, so it may be very difficult to construct and easily tune the target site list for favicon reversion (without false positives) with a Stylish CSS user style (due to the sheer number of Google sites with various favicons), without using RegExp (Regular Expression Objects) - but which CAN be achieved easily with a GreaseMonkey JavaScript user script using "*" wildcards, such as the one described on this page. Click the "Code" tab near the top of this page, and see how many "*" wildcards are used (in both "@include" and "@exclude" URLs) to get the accuracy required to correctly target Google's favicons - and review the text table I compiled (at bottom), to see how complex Google's favicon problem is.]
----- 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 non-serif monstrosity (there are numerous negative online comments about the logo change, also). Some "Stylish" user styles were quickly created to revert Google's new homepage logo design to the pre-Sept 1, 2015 Google homepage logo, on white background, including the two below:
https://userstyles.org/styles/118348/old-google-logo-circa-2010 "Old Google Logo, Circa 2010" (1-click install)
https://userstyles.org/styles/118315/google-old-logo "Google Old Logo" (1-click install)
The two user styles above were created 9/01/2015 and 9/02/2015 - the day of, and day after, Google's homepage logo change...IMMEDIATE REVULSION Leads to Immediate REVERSIONARY TACTICS
Instead of solutions like the two above (rolling back to an older Google homepage logo on a white background), I preferred using the "Black Google by Panos" Stylish User Style with its more attractive Google logo. I used Panos' user style for over a year, which beautifies Google's homepage with a multi-color, highlighted and mirrored Google Logo on a black background. In fact, "Black Google by Panos" (which has about 477,000 installs to date!) blackens all Google Search pages - homepage, search results pages, image search, video search, Google News, Google Books, etc. (Panos Babo also created the popular "Black YouTube by Panos", with more than 1.4 million installs to date !!!)
Using Panos' user style immunized me from the new Google homepage logo change. After I posted this "revert favicon" script, I decided to publish my own Stylish User Style version of Panos' "Black Google...", but with a more vibrant-color and much larger Google logo, and with increased 3D effect. Then a day later I posted another version with a smaller logo (but still larger than Panos'). There are links below to all 3 Black Google User Styles - Panos' and both of my styles. I've included a comparison screenshot below (click it to enlarge) of Google's homepage with "Stylish" user styles enabled - "Black Google by Panos" and my 2 versions (center detail only, to enlarge the logo images). There are several other dark-theme Google Stylish user styles, even others that use the same replacement logo as Panos does - multi-color, highlighted and mirrored Google Logo on black background. But I believe Panos' and his derivatives' logos look "washed-out" - and that my logo has more visual punch and better 3D effect. Also, both of my logos are bigger than Panos' too-small logo. All 3 Stylish User Styles have links below to their UserStyles.org page, where the styles can be installed with 1 click, once the Stylish User Style Manager add-on is installed. (Many Stylish User Styles can also be used in the Chrome browser, with the appropriate user style manager installed).
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 preexisting Google bookmarks that picked up the newer Google favicon have to be revisited, to complete the favicon reversion.
• ALL 4 Google Search favicon locations (Web Browser Tabs, Address Bar/URL Bar/Location Bar, 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 at top and bottom).
Detailed List of Google Sites - Reverted and Not Reverted (all have been Tested After Script Install):• The "@include" URLs in this script's metadata block ensure the following sites that got the new Google Favicon on Sept 1, 2015 REVERT to Google's previous favicon: Google Web Search, Image Search, Video Search, Patent Search, Google Books, Google Photos, Google Shopping, Google Trends, Cached Google Web Search (webcache.googleusercontent.*), Google Accounts Login (accounts.google.*), My Account (myaccount.google.*), Google About Me/Profile (aboutme.google.*), Google Search Help (support.google.*), Google Official Blog (googleblog.blogspot.*), and Google Custom Search (cse.google.* - linked from embedded Google Search Boxes in non-Google webpages).
• The "@exclude" URLs in this script's metadata block ensure the following sites that have distinct, site-specific favicons DON'T REVERT (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. Additionally, four 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 (www.blogger.com), Gmail (www.gmail.com), Panoramio (panoramio.com), and YouTube (www.youtube.com).
"Asterisked" items listed above WOULD have lost their individual favicons and been reverted, IF NOT FOR the "@exclude" URLs included in the v3.x user script 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.
• By examining the text table below, and comparing the site URLs to this script's metadata block URLs ("@include" and "@exclude"), the average user should be able to edit their own script to compensate for any future Google site URL changes, or any future favicon changes the user either likes or dislikes. Users may notify me and I'll fix the script, or guide the user regarding editing the script to suit individual preferences. In any event, if you find a website not addressed properly by my script, please notify me (even if you've edited your own locally installed script), so that I can modify the script here for everyone.
• As a side note, consider using the Firefox add-on "Thumbnail Zoom Plus" (useful on SO MANY websites) - after holding the mouse cursor stationary over the pop-up image a few seconds (even the small thumbnails below this description text block), the image opens onscreen in a large "Thumbnail Zoom" pop-up - this eliminates the need to right-click and "View Image". But the large "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 apologize for the verbose, TL;DR character of my writing - but I wanted to encourage newbies to consider jumping into user scripts and user styles, if they were unfamiliar with the territory. (And, oh yeah, there's this... "The Tyranny of Fine Detail" - R. Schneider). By presenting a mini-tutorial, I am evangelizing against an ugly web, and for a user-inspired and user-modified better web. The feeling of accomplishment users get by not being passive consumers of the web, but inspired co-developers of it, can be augmented by the propagation of their inspiration outward to other converts to this Get-Involved movement. If some of our work informs and inspires the mainstream web designers to get a clue - hear me Google? - our efforts might even be doubly rewarded.
• If you're a fan of Google "doodles" and other special, topical logos - they also get replaced on the homepage if User Styles, such as "Black Google by Panos" and my derivatives, are 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, without having to reload the page. (That's one of the many beauties of Stylish user styles). Also, on Google Search Results pages, a small Google logo appears at the upper left corner (regular Google logo IS hidden by the Black Google user styles, BUT "SPECIAL" LOGOS ARE SHOWN with Black Google styles enabled) - so you can click to the homepage, and disable the user style with 1 lick to see the special logo full-size.
• "User Styles" and "Stylish" (user styles manager) is to CSS as "User Scripts" and "Greasemonkey" (user scripts manager) is to JavaScript. The "Stylish" user styles manager add-on is a prerequisite for installation of user styles, just like the "Greasemonkey" user scripts manager add-on is a prerequisite for installation of user scripts. "Greasemonkey" uses JavaScript user scripts to modify webpages, while "Stylish" uses CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) user styles to modify webpages. All users should consider using BOTH user scripts and user styles to modify their favorite webpages in their browser - many thousands of free user scripts and user styles are available to do just that. NOTE: "Stylish" user styles are limited to modifying the appearance of webpages (via CSS) - while "Greasemonkey" user scripts can both modify the appearance of a webpage, and add functionality to a webpage (via JavaScript).
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" - Dark Theme for Google Homepage (1-click install)
https://userstyles.org/styles/121457/black-google-by-panos-r-schneider-mod-medium "Black Google by Panos - R. Schneider Mod (Med.)"
https://userstyles.org/styles/121391/black-google-by-panos-r-schneider-mod-large "Black Google by Panos - R. Schneider Mod (Large)"
(comparison screenshot below showing Panos' Stylish User Style and both of my Modified Styles (center details only, to enlarge the logos)
• For those readers who don't already know the background history - Jason Barnabe is the developer of "Stylish", the User Styles Manager add-on for Firefox, which is more than 10 years old now (there's also a version for the Chrome browser) - and the administrator of UserStyles.org, which hosts User Styles for the "Stylish" User Styles Manager add-on for Firefox, as well as administrator of this website, GreasyFork.org, which hosts User Scripts for the "Greasemonkey" User Scripts Manager add-on for Firefox. (GreasyFork.org was started by Jason after the previous major user scripts hosting site, userscripts.org, closed down). So my favorite two ways to modify the appearance and functionality of websites via CSS user styles and JavaScript user scripts has Jason Barnabe behind them, in a big way. Thank you, Jason! There's lots of interesting information in Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greasemonkey Wikipedia page on "Greasemonkey" user scripts manager
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stylish Wikipedia page on "Stylish" user styles manager
Table of Google Web Sites' URLs and Favicons (not complete list... subject to change)
"The Only Thing Constant About Google is Change"...
An example of the above quote... Wikipedia's list of Google's 'Discontinued Services' ('Current Services' list begins at the top of the page):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_products#Discontinued_products_and_services
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