Even Google Isn't Above Creative Ripping

Eric over at SmashLab thinks Google copied his logo for its new SearchMash offering.

And while some may be quick to remark a font is a font is a font, Eric gets down and dirty, geek-style: "Back in 2000, when we started our firm, we created the smashLAB wordmark.

"It presented a few technical problems, including the marriage of two styles/cases, and an 'h' with an awkward counter and a tricky ascender. I think we resolved the issues well by condensing that counter's horizontal space, cranking the x-height on the lower-case glyphs and a few other tweaks."

Check out the comparison at left to decide for yourself.

This isn't the first time the SmashLab team has had to deal with creative ripping, but Google is obviously no ordinary contender.

When the search and ad giant came out with AdSense, a small agency by that name already owned the URL. It put up a valiant fight for awhile, but now Google owns the URL. Guess it's safe to say who won that battle.

You can't even find that other AdSense in an organic search anymore. And excuse us for saying it, but that's a little ... evil.