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Ask DLS: why is every damn web browser logo round?
Maybe you noticed this ages ago, but the thought just occurred to me (and most of the rest of our crew after I pinged the list) this afternoon. Why is it that every web browser has a round icon/logo?
Don't get me wrong - we kicked it around on the list and there's the obvious roundness in the phrase World Wide Web. But is there any other sector where the iconography is this uniform?
Netscape used to have a big, boxy icon, but even that vanished as time went by. With the digging I did this afternoon, I only found one non-round icon: Midori (right). And even it has kind of a squashed-but-still-round look to it.
Oddly, Opera, whose name "sounds" like it should be the roundest logo of the bunch, is noticeably less round than the others I shopped together.
What's the deal? Is the circle just the ultimate shape for a browser logo?
Could there be some kind of Illuminati-run conspiracy at work?
Sesame Street was all about circles the other day, maybe those creepy little muppets are behind it all...
Don't get me wrong - we kicked it around on the list and there's the obvious roundness in the phrase World Wide Web. But is there any other sector where the iconography is this uniform?
Netscape used to have a big, boxy icon, but even that vanished as time went by. With the digging I did this afternoon, I only found one non-round icon: Midori (right). And even it has kind of a squashed-but-still-round look to it.Oddly, Opera, whose name "sounds" like it should be the roundest logo of the bunch, is noticeably less round than the others I shopped together.
What's the deal? Is the circle just the ultimate shape for a browser logo?
Could there be some kind of Illuminati-run conspiracy at work?
Sesame Street was all about circles the other day, maybe those creepy little muppets are behind it all...
Comments
54
Subscribe to commentsFuzzyOneJun 19th 2009 9:38PM
are you serious? "World Wild Web" might have something to do with it!
Lee MathewsJun 19th 2009 10:00PM
Are YOU serious? did you read the second paragraph? :)
KlintJun 19th 2009 9:51PM
iCab's icon is not round at all
http://www.icab.de/logo.html
FuzzyOneJun 19th 2009 10:10PM
Ohhhh, touché :)
rcarmJun 20th 2009 12:24AM
The program's not free?
HeavytokaJun 19th 2009 10:02PM
Because nobody likes a Square lol
wrabbitJun 19th 2009 10:06PM
I think, and it seems most agree, that it's a combination of "world" in www, and the fact that IE and netscape to an extant used the round shape and it somehow became associated with browsers.
What I'm more interested to know is why the heck Google Chrome's logo/icon looks like MS's logo wrapped up in a circle?
aJun 19th 2009 10:33PM
it's natural selection. rectangular icons simply died out.
JimJun 20th 2009 12:24AM
What happened to the Downloads in Downloadsquad? It's just tech news and silly articles now. :(
Lee MathewsJun 19th 2009 11:03PM
Well, I hit Fotografix and Macpup today, both of which are downloadable. Jay wrote about glow doodle.
I can't speak for the other writers here, but some days there just aren't that many great apps to write up.
JoshJun 20th 2009 12:24AM
I've been reading DLS for a few years now. Probably 2-3 years. What I noticed is that when they were writing about almost exclusively apps, they almost died out. There was a month or so in late 2007/early 2008 where they would get in maybe an article every 2 days. No one was commenting, nothing. And then they (whether intentionally or not) transitioned to the current format and it's thriving again.
I think that blogs like Lifehacker have pretty much taken the gusto from smaller blogs like DLS writing about strictly downloads. Most sites seem to have either died out or had to expand their focus over time as Lifehacker and a few others have grown to be some of the largest blogs on the web
MKJun 20th 2009 9:14AM
I'll pick DLS over LH any day. LH is too crowded with articles that is mostly taken from other small blogs. It seems compulsory for them to, at least reblog every tech news that surfaces. And more iPhone.
Seriousness aside, I think round icon looks yummy. Makes you really want to click on them.
jayJun 20th 2009 1:04AM
flock- also round
markybJun 20th 2009 3:40AM
AOL!!!!!
DogugotwJun 20th 2009 6:47PM
In meat-space, most buttons are round or rounded so you they feel good when you push them, no sharp corners to hurt one's delicate fingers...
Rdaical DreamerJun 20th 2009 8:48AM
I guess you guys ran out of topics to write about ?
And I'm glad to know you're still watching Sesame Street....
Peter KirnJun 20th 2009 10:19AM
See, this question actually turns out to be interesting -- and I find it interesting that in retrospect people credit IE and Netscape and forget NCSA Mosaic.
In fact, you can blame Mosaic for starting this by taking the World in WWW literally and making it its icon. And initially, Mosaic was a *very* popular browser, even integrated with things like CompuServe. Microsoft, you'll recall, didn't ship IE in the original release of Windows95, but they did put an Earth logo on the desktop. I think it was actually designers returning to the Mosaic iconography and metaphor that ultimately won out.
markybJun 20th 2009 11:38AM
PWN3D
RUGRLNJun 20th 2009 10:28AM
Well..being for the Internet, the World Wide Web, and connecting you with people around the world, and it being round, a round icon would be a logical proposition...and just for the heck of it..Opera is eliptical lol!
poppadotJun 20th 2009 1:56PM
lee man, it's round so just...
ROLL WITH IT!