Google Icon 1.9: favicons in Google search results

Google Icon 1.9 is a tiny free browser extension by Sunsean that adds each site's favicon next to its result on Google search pages. You can download Google Icon from the author's page; it is one of the smallest add-ons in our listings and does just one thing.

What it does

A favicon is the small logo a website shows in the browser tab. Search results used to show only titles and links, which made a long list look uniform and hard to scan. Google Icon places the favicon of each site in front of its result, if the site has one, so you can spot familiar sources at a glance: a documentation site, a forum you trust or a shop you use. The idea is simple visual help rather than a new feature, and the author describes it exactly that way, as a way to make results easier to recognise and a little more lively. The extension does not change the ranking, does not add results and does not need an account. Since Google has shown icons in results itself for some time, the effect in a current browser may be small or duplicate what is already there, so the add-on is mostly of interest to people using older browsers or older layouts.

Key facts

• Version: 1.9
• Author: Sunsean
• Type: browser extension
• Licence: freeware
• Size: about 5.02 KB according to catalogue data
• Official page: sunsean.com/googleicon

Who it suits

• People who read many search results and want to recognise sites faster.
• Users of older browser versions where results appear without icons.
• Anyone curious about small, single-purpose add-ons.

Who can skip it

• Users of current Chrome, Edge or Firefox, where Google already shows site icons.
• Anyone who prefers to keep the number of extensions to a minimum.

How to install it

1. Open the official page and follow the link for your browser.
2. Confirm the installation when the browser asks.
3. Open a Google search and check that icons appear next to results.

Requirements and safety

The author does not list requirements in our data, and old extensions may not install in current browsers at all. Install it only from the author's page. Every extension that works on search pages can see what you search for, so remove add-ons you no longer use.

If icons do not appear

Make sure the extension is enabled in the browser’s add-ons list and reload the results page. Google changes its result layout from time to time, and an extension written for an older layout can stop finding the right place to add icons. In that case there is nothing to fix on your side; simply remove it.

Price

Google Icon is free.

Pros and cons

• Pro: makes results easier to scan.
• Pro: extremely small.
• Con: little effect in current browsers.
• Con: no recent updates listed in our data.

Alternatives

Browser tools on our site include Google Translate for page translation.