Replaces New 2015 Google Search Favicon in: Browser Tabs / Address Bar / Bookmarks
目前为
Google Web Search, Cached Google Web Search, Image Search, Video Search, Patent Search, My Account, Accounts Login, Google Books, Google Photos, Google Shopping, Google Trends, Google Search Help, and Google Security Permissions - 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 UserScript 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 UserScript 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 pre-existing 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 in a black or other "dark-theme Google" Stylish or Greasemonkey script).
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 were changed to the new (ugly IMO) favicon Sept 1, 2015.
Version 3.x of this user script aimed to change ONLY those sites that got the new Search favicon introduced Sept 1, 2015 - and that goal has been achieved. All Google sites shown on the "...Google.../about/products/" page listed above were visited, and it was determined which sites had non-new, favicons to be preserved. The URLs of all sites were recorded (along with their icon descriptions) in the text table referred to above (screenshot at bottom), which was used to construct the UserScript metadata block's "@include" and "@exclude" URL entries. After script v3.x was installed, all sites were revisited, and it has been confirmed all Google sites with non-new favicons have their site-specific favicons preserved, while all sites with the new favicon are reverted to the previous 2013-2015 favicon. Both "http://" and "https://" address protocols are accomated for in the "@include" and "@exclude" URL entries in the UserScript metadata block, as well as "*" wildcards used at the end of URLs that should cover most country-identified URLs.
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 2013-2015 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 has gets automatic updates from Greasy Fork.
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 read 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/ (for Firefox - 1-click install - has 1.25 million Firefox users)
https://tampermonkey.net/ (select tab near page top for your browser - Chrome, Opera Next, Safari, Dolphin Browser or UC Browser) - or from Google Chrome App Store.
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 occuring 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 overide 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
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 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 UserScript 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 UserStyles 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 UserStyle - but which CAN be achieved easily with a GreaseMonkey JavaScript UserScript, 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 accuarcy required to correctly target Google's favicons - and review the text table I compiled (in the images section at the bottom), to see how complex Google's favicon problem is.]
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 already exist to revert to Google's old homepage logo, on the white background:
https://userstyles.org/styles/118348/old-google-logo-circa-2010 (Reverts to pre Sept 1, 2015 Google logo on white background)
https://userstyles.org/styles/118315/google-old-logo (Reverts to pre Sept 1, 2015 Google logo on white background)
For over a year, I've used the "Stylish" user style "Black Google by Panos", which beautifies Google's homepage with a multi-color, highlighted and mirrored Google Logo on 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's information). There are several other dark-theme Google Stylish user scripts, even some that use the same replacement logo (multi-color, highlighted and mirrored Google Logo on black background - shown below).
The NOTES section below has a blurb on "Stylish", with download links for it, as well as the "Black Google by Panos" user style.
• 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 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).
• Due to the use of "@include" URLs in this script's metadata block, the following sites that got the new Google Favicon on Sept 1, 2015 ARE REVERTED: Google Web Search, Cached Google Web Search (webcache.googleusercontent), Image Search, Video Search, Patent Search,
My Account, Accounts Login, Google Books, Google Photos, Google Shopping, Google Trends, Google Search Help (support.google), and Google Security Permissions (security.google).
• Due to the use of "@exclude" URLs in this script's metadata block, the following sites that have separate distinct favicons will KEEP THEIR FAVICONS (are NOT REVERTED): 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, 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 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.
• 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 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 even 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, without having to reload the page.
• "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):
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