google "drops everything" to copy apple

Google CEO Sundar Pichai has published a tweet saying he would drop everything Monday to resolve the placement of the cheese in the cheeseburger emoticon. It started over the weekend after the founder of Barkdal Media posted the difference in how Apple and Google make cheeseburgers and from there, the internet went insane. Sundar Pichai responded on Twitter, saying he will be giving the emoticon’s design priority over everything else.

Looking at Emojipedia, Google is the only company that places the cheese underneath the hamburger patty. The organization that manages emoticons, The Unicode Consortium, does not require them to look the same everywhere they are used. The organization releases a description, code, and pictograph. Each company then gets to design their own version of the emoticon however they feel best match the information provided. This is why we type one emoji on our iPhone, but it appears different on Facebook. It’s more noticeable between iPhone and Android devices, as some emojis have completely separate meanings between the two platforms

more mistakes

The cheeseburger isn’t Google’s only emoticon to get reamed by the internet this weekend. The beer mug also got hit for displaying foam floating above the drink as a cloud formation, which makes absolutely no sense, as well as for being a half-empty glass while Apple serves up full glasses of beer.

the significance

The three tweets may appear innocent from the surface, but they demonstrate the power of the consumer with Thomas’ tweet earning 21k retweets / 43k likes and Sundar’s tweet reaching 16k retweets / 41k likes. Thomas Fuchs’ beer tweet received 12k retweets / 24k likes. This is a design flaw that a significant number of consumers are put off by. If we can’t agree with Google on where to put the cheese, then how can we relate with them at all? If Google itself is giving us half-empty mugs of beer, what does that say about their products, compared to Apple’s full glass? Nothing positive. I would be expecting a couple of updated emoticons from Google very shortly.