If you have ever accidentally (or purposefully) clicked on Google’s more link at the top of its pages, you’ll be confronted with something called “Google Services.” This has to be one of the least finely designed pages I’ve seen by a company of this size. It’s as if Google, forever cutified by its occasionally changing holiday logos, came up with a few unrelated stock illustrations to represent some of their very powerful services such as “Answers” and “Scholar” and “Alerts.” A few of the icons on this page are designed well but it’s always suprised me how little research Google does regarding icon design.
Hey Google: check out a few of these guys.
Related: Right now, Google appears to be in some hot water with a lot of folks regarding its new autolink feature in its new (beta only) toolbar. Zeldman covers it: essentially it seems that Google can somehow create new links within your site without your permission. Google does a lot of things right but it’s still only one click away from those influencing and designing the Web.
Also related: I’m starting to try my hand at high-end icon design and am excited about it.