

Ask HN: Very strange favicon on Gmail. Has anyone seen this? - malandrew

I don&#x27;t know when I first noticed this but on gmail,  the favicon displayed is different for my account but not anyone else&#x27;s that I&#x27;ve talked to. It&#x27;s a round flower with a yellow symbol in the middle that looks like the end of a crescent wrench.<p>Here&#x27;s a link to it:<p>http:&#x2F;&#x2F;imgur.com&#x2F;MlcXQRX<p>When I search for it on Google Image search, I can only find 8 results for it, all on Chinese sites.<p>http:&#x2F;&#x2F;preview.tinyurl.com&#x2F;oj99epk
(with preview link so people can see the full google search url before navigating to that link)<p>Has anyone else seen this or at least know what the symbol is? I don&#x27;t recognize it at all.
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amarcus
Appears to be an error on Gmail's part. See this discussion for more info
including official response:
[https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-
topic/apps...](https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-
topic/apps/general-discussion/TWJHXfDjRpU%5B1-25-true%5D)

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malandrew
Thank you for this. I tried searching for an answer before posting here and
did not find that discussion.

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ajani
This happens when you are logged into google apps as admin.

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malandrew
Strange, because I also get it on my work Google Apps email account even
though I'm not an admin on that account.

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ajani
Interesting. Since I am admin on my Google Apps account, I assumed it must be
for that. Guess all Apps accounts get it.

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malandrew
In general I find it very odd for a company to change the favicon for a domain
or site since it's meant to aid which recognition of what tabs go with what
sites you are familiar with. Putting an icon that is unrelated to your own
logo destroys the ability for the user to recognize their gmail tab quickly.
At best, their intent could be that this is meant as a placeholder favicon
until the user sets his/her own custom one. But even in that case, I'd except
the regular Gmail favicon until the user feels compelled to seek out this
configuration and set it themselves.

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adamneilson
One of my PMs had this last week. We assumed it was some sort of maintenance
mode indicator given the spanner icon. A mystery indeed!

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xauronx
Oh I only have that on my corporate account and not my business account. I
figured it was something one of the admins did.

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MattBearman
Strangely I only see this favicon on one of the two linked gmail accounts I am
currently logged into.

