Google FiberCopied

In May 2021 Google Fiber introduced a new symbol. The company's blog post explained that the icon represents two concepts with an upward arcing motion, tied to its vision of internet that is fast, reliable, fairly priced and open, and said it was designed with Google's in-house Brand Studio team. The post recalled that Google Fiber started in 2011 in Kansas City.

Android Police was less impressed. Its headline said the new four-colour icon looks just like every other Google icon, and the article compared it to four tipped-over Wi-Fi symbols. It noted the icon was already appearing in ads and on the company's Twitter account.

9to5Google filled in the history. For its entire existence the ISP had used only a wordmark, a four-colour Google beside Fiber, on local offices and maintenance trucks. The new icon covers both Google Fiber and Google Fiber Webpass, the service that connects apartments and offices through rooftop antennas. Google described its two concepts as a catalyst, expressed in the upward arcing motion, and scalable impact, expressed in a modular pattern, with the shapes open to many readings: fast, fairly priced, reliable and open, or communities big and small, or, as the company put it, maybe just a fun, colourful shape. It arrived as Fiber rolled out 2 gig service, then available in 19 cities across 14 states.

The criticism lands. Fiber joining a family of lookalike four-colour icons makes the family consistent at the cost of making each member harder to spot.

The symbol's meaning is also hard to read without the explanation. Upward arcs suggest signal, which is reasonable for an internet provider, but the blog's two concepts are not obvious from the shape alone.

Android Police found the timing curious. Fiber had gone years without expanding between 2017 and 2020, Louisville, Kentucky had even lost the service, and for a while the outlet thought it might be toast. Only in the previous year had Google seemed to remember it, reaching West Des Moines, Iowa and Millcreek, Utah, rolling out 2 gigabit service in some markets and adding mesh Wi-Fi hardware. Against that history, a new logo reads as a statement that Fiber is staying. It would have been more convincing with a map of new cities attached.

For a company selling a physical service in specific cities, being recognisably Google probably helps more than it hurts. Still, the new symbol mostly says Google, not Fiber.