[potatolicious]

Perhaps familiarity is in fact part of the definition of the "best "logo. After all, a logo serves no other purpose than recognition. Companies routinely spend a great deal of money ensuring that their logo, colors, interior decor, etc etc, all make people go "Oh yeah! That's [X]!"

[sltkr]

> After all, a logo serves no other purpose than recognition.

If recognition was the sole purpose, Yahoo should have kept the logo exactly the same. I think logos (or styles in general) are also an expression of the attributes that a company wants consumers to associate with the brand.

The uneven baseline in Yahoo's logo express playfulness, as do the colors in Google's logo, for example. That's how Google and Yahoo contrast themselves with boring old business-oriented companies like Microsoft, IBM and SAP.

Like potatolicious pointed out, it is dubious how worthwhile it is to ask your existing customers for feedback if you want to change your image. After all, these are people that are already familiar with you, while the purpose of an updated image is, presumably, to attract a different/wider userbase.

[TylerE]

Logos in fact have two purposes: Recognition, and so C-level empty suits can feel like they're accomplishing something by changing them.

[blah32497]

True, but there is also potential for some re-branding here. Maybe one of them is more "hip" and "fun" but people don't associate it with the Yahoo! brand.

Ideally you would have different people use different logos and then you'd survey them after a year or 6 months; once they're more used to "their" new logo.

[sbarre]

Yeah see the "failed" Pepsi logo redesign[1]

[1] http://blog.logodesignguru.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Pe...

[MidwestMuster]

Precisely. What if they had shown the logos in different colors, with a different word, with different styles?

[potatolicious]

In which case the question would be the wrong one to ask. It doesn't really matter which logo people "prefer" - their personal aesthetic taste has nothing to do with an effective logo (well, assuming your logo isn't goatse).

It would be more effective to ask people what descriptors they'd use to describe the company behind the logo, using a fictional company name.

The rest is millions of dollars of marketing.