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The Change to Google You Didn't Notice

by L. Turner

This week in non-controversial changes from major Internet companies: Google changed its logo, and you probably didn't notice. The company made a tiny adjustment to the kerning in its logo — that's the space between letters — specifically between the "l" and the "e," and slightly affecting the location of the "g."

Obviously the monumental change shocked the web.

Redditors pointed out the change two days ago. They also noted a little Google Easter Egg that increases the space between letters in the word "kerning" when you Google it, and decreases it when you Google the term "keming," a typographer's joke about what happens to the word "kerning" when letters get too close together.

You can check out the original logo here. Here's the changed logo. The URL suggests it's the 11th iteration of Google's iconic multicolored brand.

Overwhelmed by the insider geekiness of all this yet?

We decided to take a quick look at all the other little changes Google has made that you probably didn't notice. But none of them will probably have as small an impact as the logo change. We're on the edge of our seats to see what Google has in store with us with Logo #12!

1. Font Changes in Search

This change rattled computer scientist Jennifer Golbeck back in March. The search giant changed the way things look on the search page. But only a little bit.

2. Getting rid of the black navigation bar

Google briefly debuted this change, then dumped it in 2011 in favor of the more clean look you see today.

3. A previous logo change

In 2013, Google debuted a similarly groundbreaking change to its logo, tweaking the color and changing the shape slightly.