Marissa Mayer's description from last year is very appropriate. "We wanted something distinctive and noticeable (...). We wanted something that embraced the colorfulness of the logo, yet wouldn't date itself." Adam Howard, a reader of this blog, thinks that the new favicon "looks like a mini paint-by-numbers".
Here are all the three Google favicons, starting with the new one, followed by the simple favicon added last year and the initial Google favicon, which is still my favorite:
Update: Marissa Mayer tells the story of the new favicon:
"Back in June, we rolled out a new favicon — the small icon that greets you when you access Google on your URL bar or your bookmarks list — and we encouraged our users to submit their ideas for this important piece of Google branding. We were impressed by the volume of submissions we received, and today we are happy to introduce a new Google favicon inspired by those submissions by our users. André Resende, a computer science undergraduate student at the University of Campinas in Brazil, submitted the design that inspired our new favicon:
. His placement of a white 'g' on a color-blocked background was highly recognizable and attractive, while seeming to capture the essence of Google."{ Thanks, Daniel, John and Adam. }