The "g" Kagi logo is confusing. This is a serious branding problem.

RoxyRoxyRoxy

markmcb I mean I can make AI defend Kagi's 'g' so I'm not sure how strong that argument is 🙂
And FWIW that response doesn't even really make sense, the font used in Gemini's full logotype:

is arguably just as strongly associated with Google's corporate identity. It even has the exact same G in it!

markmcb

RoxyRoxyRoxy Yes, it's in the name, but the 4-point star icon what they use for recognition. They use "G" in various ways to associate products with Google, and they also tend to reuse their color scheme, but the primary branding of their products lean heavily on distinct icons, e.g., if you open Gemini in a tab, you'll see the star, not the G. If you look for Gemini in Kagi's assisstant you see the star. Etc.

Dustin

Google stopped using a lowercase serif ‘g’ for their logo in 2015. A decade ago. Maybe it’s time to move on … 🫠

markmcb

Dustin as already noted, big brands don't fade so easily. You seem to imply a decade is so long ago as to not be relevant. Someone who was 30 in 2015 had a decade and a half exposure to this 'g' brand. A product they probably used daily those 15 years. That 'g' is burned in for them.

Dustin

markmcb technically it was 3 distinctly different serif lowercase gs for a little less than 7 years. The vast majority of time it’s been an uppercase G completely distinct from the Kagi icon

If you want to get pedantic, that is. 🤓

macro

Dustin

I don’t know how old you are, but yesterday, as I was receiving some friends home (30 to 40 years old), I received a notification on my phone about this convo and decided to make a quick test.
I showed them the kagi icon in the tab bar while hiding kagi’s full logo, and asked « what is it ». Spoiler: all of them thought it was google.

markmcb

macro You hit the key point. All the thoughtful insights and opinions in this thread don't really matter compared to recognition in the marketplace. You can go step further and test pre-visual recognition, "in terms of internet search, what does the letter 'g' make you think of?" The answer will be Google every time.

Boomkop3

I'm not that old, but I have been online for a while. The kagi favicon looks like the old google favicon but cut off.

And kagi just so happens to do the exact same thing with the position and style of their g:

To be fair, up to about a decade ago google did have some decency to it

Peter

I feel like this is actually a good thing. Google has gone downhill lately, so Kagi could be seen as a return to the old Google...

Boomkop3

Peter My mom did say that kagi is "what google used to be". I'm a bit too young to remember that time clearly

bert

If Kagi wants to use the dog, they not only need to make it their favicon but also lean really hard into the dog for their branding overall. For instance, the dog is not visible anywhere on the search results page. I think it will also be a pretty big lift — not impossible, though — to make the dog come to represent Kagi the way I currently think of the lowercase g as doing so. I think the comparison to GitHub’s Octocat is apt — a funky animal that doesn't really represent anything in particular, but which the brand has chosen for its mascot.

Here is a heavily pared-down version of the default dog logo that I think does work ok as a favicon. I'm removed a lot of the smaller elements that become tricky at small sizes.

sashk

Kagi's favicon is small letter g. I 2007-201x Google used to have same letter as a favicon. Every time I see Kagi's favicon, my brain thinks I'm using google. I cannot find Kagi tabs because of this.

To mee all of these tabs seem to be google related (sorry): {three tabs, two of which are Kagi, one is Google}

Would like to have an option to select a different favicon:

predefined different letters
different color
custom favicon
bonus point: different Kagi properties should have a slightly different icon (color?)

I would select a different icon for Kagi. Perhaps small or capital K can be used; different colors for search/maps/translate, etc?

alexchadwick

Would probably mess with branding consistency (ie someone looking over and seeing you are using Kagi but the logo is different). Different colors are also already used for assistant and I imagine will be rolled to others eventually.

[deleted]

alexchadwick Would probably mess with branding consistency (ie someone looking over and seeing you are using Kagi but the logo is different).

"Brand consistency"?! It's the OP's private device, "brand" has nothing to do with it...

edword

Vouch for a minor rebrand. Not a fan of the g & while it’s a good logo, just doesn’t match the brand. I’m gonna work on some ideas & post here later!

Chris

Didn't realize the "g" was so contentious.

I'll add—I like the "g". As a web dev, I find the "g" reads really well on small icons, many companies just take their logo and make it smaller. The result usually looks pretty bad. The yellow background works pretty well.

InternetChunk

I think it looks perfect, grabs attention and looks cool. Please don’t change it

nichicon

So when I see the “g” fav icon I almost do a double take to make sure I’m not “googling” something. I know it’s the third letter in Kagi but monograms and one or two letter fav icons are usually the first letter(s). Probably not a huge deal to most and although I don’t know the reason it does leave me feeling a little creeped out. I already feel like there is no escaping from big googles line of sight for numerous reasons. But if Kagi is really all along… no, I’m not going to say it!!!

Maybe there’s a better place for this discussion. I am not aware of it if it exists!

ponte-vecchio

There are multiple ways the Kagi favicon differentiates itself from the big G.

For one it is in minuscule g cf. the majuscule G. That should already be decisive enough.

Then there's colour - the big G uses a variety of primary colours. Meanwhile, Kagi's favicon seems to use black text on orange; or white text on purple.

I think the pathological association of any form of the letter g—regardless of its case, in any colour or form—to Google is not really contingent on Kagi.

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