Chrome to get a minor change, the wrench icon on the Chrome toolbar which allows us to access the ‘Settings’ menu has to go for all desktop platforms, as decided by the Chrome team. And interesting part, it is going to be replaced by the Hotdogs icon. The wrench icon has been part of Chrome till now, this icon resembles the meaning of settings. The new Hotdogs icon seems related to foodie stuff which is favored by the Chrome team, you can see how this icon looks on the Chrome toolbar on Mac OS X from the screenshot below.
Chrome Wrench icon to be removed and replaced by a new icon called “hotdogs”
Here is the Chrome team discussion on Issue 137744: Hotdogs menu icon on all desktop platforms reveals
description: We want to switch the “Wrench menu” out with the new hotdogs icon. This requires revised ConOps documentation, a blog post, and new assets for all desktop clients.
Any new strings? Yes?
Any implications for Google webservices (i.e. sync, translate)? Yes
Its Chrome team headache’s to update all their Chrome browser help pages with this change, but from now onwards we need to mention this icon for e.g “click on hotdogs icon” instead of “click on wrench icon”, it sounds/seems not good.
Let me surprise you, this icon has been already implemented on the metro version of Chrome, go and check the Metro Chrome in Windows 8 or you can also confirm it from the below screenshot.
Thanks to Francois Beaufort ].
What do you say about this change? Will you accept the change of the Wrench icon to hotdogs? Please share your thoughts with us in the comments.
Update 08/08/12: Chrome wrench icon is gone, no more, as we said above it has been replaced with 3 horizontal lines icon, the latest Chrome dev update reflects this change.
Update May 13, 2022: You may have already noticed this, hamburger icon has been replaced with a vertical 3 dots-icon menu
What’s your take on the transition of icons from the wrench, and hamburger to 3-dots? Let us know in the comments below.
Personally I don’t mind the change; however, the name seems weird. When I read “hotdogs”, it immediately made me imagine the food not three horizontal lines.
How does the icon resemble hotdogs?
Bad idea. The wrench icon is a perfect indicator for settings/preferences. On the other hand the icon they call “hotdogs icon” is confusing.
What’s the point? It’s change for change’s sake, and smacks of amateurism. No doubt someone will write an add-on that allows those who give a damn to revert to the wrench.
For no good reason at all, I WANT THE WRENCH BACK!
I know it’s stupid, but I’m used to it, and that stupid “hotdog” icon (which doesn’t even resemble hotdogs!) is just boring.
Bring it back, or the world just might end, as we know it.
Wrence was good, 3 lines (do not resemble hot dogs at all) are lame.
I think this change is pointless and confusing. I found this article because my wrench icon changed to this hotdog icon without me doing anything, and I thought I had a virus or something so I searched for info on it. How did it change without me doing anything? I didn’t update google chrome or anything that I know of. Chrome didn’t ask me to upgrade anything. At least firefox let’s me know when there is an update and something is changing so I don’t think I have a virus.
I assist computer ignorant people all the time. I always set them up with Chrome. When it comes time to assist them, like explaining how to remove an extension, I’ve been grateful many times I can say “The wrench icon on the top right” however now I am forced to say “There is an icon of three lines”… It shouldn’t be a big deal, but I guarantee it’s going to be harder for ignorant people to locate the settings now.
My point is this minor change makes the browser just a little less user friendly and however minor that is I believe it’s a step in the wrong direction.
I feel goofy clicking on a hotdog :\
It’s like leaving a kid with a lighter in an empty room, It seems all those programmers at google finished all their work, they have a great search engine and a great browser, now they are just doing things becuase they are bored, send them to a pottery class or have them take ballet, just leave chrome, google and gmail alone, they are perfect as they are :)
Google has teams that are losing touch wth the consumer. This is user UNfriendly for all the reasons OBVIOUS to everyone else here posting. Change it back and never NEVER do anything unannounced again. I too thought I might have a virus.
Actually, this is just keeping style and familiarity across products…. to a degree. The menu/list icon (I won’t use the phrase hot dogs) is the same as what is found on most Android phones.
Do I personally like the icon change? Not really. But, at least it’s consistent.
The Wrench icon is about setting changes, and there are several items in the menu that have nothing to do with changing settings.
On the flip-side, as Facebook has demonstrated repeatedly: change for change’s sake is not typically a good thing.
Is there Anything we/l can do to bring my wrench back?
No we can’t do anything unless any developer comes up with an extension to replace 3 horizontal lines with Wrench, I don’t know its feasible on developer’s end.
I don’t give a damn what the icon looks like. But I spent hours trying to figure out what *I* had done to lose the wrench, before I realized that you’d snuck in an update to Chrome.
With no notice.
Don’t’ do that!
If your guys need something to do on Chrome, how about giving us a way to place the links that we want in the New Tabs screen. I want to be able to override the damned algorithm.
I thought chrome had a virus!
Absolutely stupid and worthless change! Like Microsoft completely changing how we work in Office, after so many years of stability from version to version.
Come on Google, get your together and stop doing stuff to show us that you can! Very amateurish and microsoft like. Time to finds a new browser.
I was freaking out when the wrench icon was gone…
We took our computer to Best Buy…
And turns out that with a 5-second search that Google changed the wrench icon to a hotdog icon…
Curse you Google!
How does a hot dog symbolise adjustment or settings? The new icon doesn’t look much like a hot dog anyway. It looks like the mathematical symbol for ‘identical to’ ( ≡ Unicode 2261) — the very opposite of suitable for an icon taking you to a place where you can change things. Or like the Greek letter capital Xi ( Ξ Unicode 039E), which I suppose could stand for ‘experimental’ — i.e. untried, may not work.
I absolutely agree with Ivo. The people at Google are changing things pointlessly because they’re bored. The recent changes to GMail deserved and got the same welcome as New Coke.
Chrome, Not all change is good. Stick to what you know. How the hell does a hotdog represent “fixing” or “finding” a specific menu. Not all users are used to sudden changes, warned or not. It’s about us not you.
Thank You
Just as Chrome has more usage than IE you really threw a wrench in the works. You people don’t seem to UNDERSTAND that when something runs well don’t screw with it. Now this stupid wrench Icon thing as well as when you go to New Tab there is no recent favorites. People DO NOT LIKE CHANGE unless it is to fix something so screwed up you must. These type of changes will cause people to go to other browsers which programmers see that the adage, “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it!”
When you go to NEW TAB the Google Chrome logo has been changed. This all of a sudden makes users think that a proggy had hi jacked the page. Why the would you put a NEW logo in when the OLD LOGO is the one that is still used. What a bunch of novices!!
Wrench icons was perfect in sight of the softwareergonomic. if not changed back in next update or choosebla by user i will change browser. Opera is good alternative.
Sick to all Chrome Designers
FYI for those of you surprised by Chrome updating on its own: Chrome has always updated silently, with no warnings. That’s a big part of its appeal. Firefox switched to the same model.
Damned ‘hotdog’ – thought our new member to the household (language student) had managed to change the icon. Spent ages trying to work out how she’s done it! Aaaaaaaaaagh!!!!!!!
Change for changes sake.Please reinstate wrench icon, it truly represented “tools”.
I totally agree that it’s a worthless and unnecessary change. It’s also harmless, so I don’t get too upset by it. But Chrome has been working pretty well lately, and I would hate to see some REAL functionality screwed up because the programming staff at Google has nothing better to do than fix things that aren’t broken.
Pointless change ( to me anyway ) At 74 years old and not very good with computers I have struggled for days to replace the wrench icon. Three times I have gone to system restore and got the wrench back, only for it to disappear again within minutes.
If you are going to change things. PLEASE let users know about it and give reasons
I just tried to install Google Cloud Print and the instructions kept telling me to click on the Wrench Icon in the Chrome Toolbar to get to advanced settings. Well I don’t normally use Chrome, but had to install it to use Cloud Print. Then I couldn’t find the stupid wrench icon anywhere. After much annoyance I Google searched “No wrench in chrome” finally lead me here and I could figure out what happened to the icon. If Google wants to make these pointless changes, they should at least update all their documentation so as not to misinform and frustrate their users. It’s just another reason (like pages not scrolling when there’s a flash video on the page, umpteen million “Oh snap!” error messages) not to use this browser unless you have to.
Google tells me to “Click on the Wrench Icon” . There is no ” Wrench Icon” . I don’t even see a “hot dog” icon. Is AVG No Track causing me to not get this? Wrench was there before. Also PLEASE give us an EASY way to COMPLETELY ELIMINATE Babylon from Google / Google Chrome. Babylon acts as a take over “virus”. I spent a good bit of time to uninstall / delete /etc. /etc. only to have Babylon still appear in Google / Setting / Open with page .
the wrench was a useful icon, and was well fit to google chrome setting/Preferences!
If users couldn’t chose some utilities, which is fine with gooogle, i think it’s a mistake!
If google come up with better wrench design, it’s better to do some just to let users chose!
This is in my view Highly Important, due to the number of users who wanted it back!
Best Wishes
Best design
Majid
I totally agree this was uncalled for. I rarely use the browser, but apparently this happened months, if not a year, ago, and documentation still refers to the “wrench” icon. This is ridiculous. Now, if they had WORDS on instead of these stupid icons, it would not matter. Say “file” “edit” “view” “history” “help” “bookmarks” “downloads” all at the top of the screen with the tabs below.. with the address bar at the top… this would not have happened. Also, they should allow you to have a constantyl showing lower bar with tools on it such as NoScript, FlashBlock, a zoom tool, and where it shows any link you hover over, without disappearing, like my Firefox 3.6.
Chrome is the worst browser I’ve ever seen, and runs the slowest. I only use it to access sites where other browsers don’t work. Since Microsoft cannot (and Linux Users Wouldn’t Want It Anyway) be cross-platform, or even let their OWN OS’s users (windows 98, 2000, XP) install the latest, I can see where people would want an “updated” one. Chrome, isn’t it. Opera or Firefox, IS. Also, Gmail makes no sense to me. Google, stick with a free search engine, and DON’T track people’s usage on it. It’s ll you’re good for. AND KEEP YOUR HANDS OUT OF LINUX. Donate all your “Android” code to a nonprofit company that can use it on a completely free version of Android without your stupid tie-ins.
With all respects, because it is a free service, I say it’s not very intelligent to make an insignificant change…which apparently necessitates changing bigger functions under it.