Is Google the latest company to adopt a flat logo?

Microsoft, eBay and Yahoo! have all updated their logos in the recent past. Now it looks like Google may well follow their lead in adopting a new, flatter look.

The logo, fist spotted by Ars Technica, was hidden in the latest update of Chrome Beta for Android.

Here’s a comparison between the old and new logos:

As you can see, the shadows and 3D effects are gone in favour of, well, flatness. At this stage, it’s unclear when Google intends to release the new logo and whether it will be carried across to all its products. The latter, however, seems fairly likely given the congruence between the new logo and the flat look the internet giant has adopted in some of its flagship products (Google Now’s cards are probably the most prominent example).

If Google does decide to roll out the logo across all its properties, it will be the first time the company has redesigned its logo since 2010. And while that means it may have missed the trend for flatness, it at least shows that Google is faster on redesigns than Microsoft, which took 20 years to overhaul its logo.

Logo image: Ars Technica.