Elle On Heels

The Battle of the Browsers & Favicons May 25, 2005

I know about favicons.. really! The little critters are as common now as ellipses in this post. They’re everywhere; all the best sites have them, you know. Until today I just didn’t want to bother with them but after my bookmarks started resembling a Mardi Gras parade, shame forced me to build my own. Here’s how I did it, for those out there who don’t know how. Better yet, I’ll save my fingers for paying gigs and just send you to a real expert. PhotoMatt, you did a fine job explaining the particulars about faviconning, but what’s with that nasty Smiley Central banner ad at the top of the page? (Crapware alert!) I know Google puts it there, maybe my real gripe is with them, instead of you. My apologies, but damnnnn, I loathe that little piece of shit malware. Now, I’ve gone and digressed. Back to the topic: I made my own favicon using Theodore Patrick’s Icon Builder (which looks like this: ), inserted the correct code, uploaded, smushed, tweaked and wasted most of the morning playing with it instead of working. But, it’s done.. time for browser test! Yayy! First was Firefox, which shouldn’t be because the world revolves around I.E. but I’ve grown to love that browser enough to give it first view of my fancy new icon. Of course, it worked.. it’s Firefox, right? Yep, yep yep. Netscape also loaded it up. Cool, this is going great. Time for the uber-important I.E. test. It went something like this: 1. Typed in http://sparktown.com/blog.htm 2. Page loaded after a couple of naggy warning boxes I don’t feel like editing in Preferences. 3. No icon. Dadgummit. 4. F5.. 5. F5.. 6. F5.. 7. F…sigh. 8. Cleaned out the cache, checked my spelling.. still no icon. 9. Desperation setting in, checked Microsoft’s site for info and learned the page has to be bookmarked before favicons work. 10. Closed down I.E., reopened Firefox and grinned at my silly icon. I didn’t bother with Netscape, the default skin clashes with my icon (!!) and I don’t use it enough to change it. After a minute or so I started mentally picking apart the favicon.. guess I’ll be making Leita’s Favicon ver1.02 soon. Finally: show off a little and send a link to a pal. Ten minutes spent explaining what a favicon was only to find she was on AOL’s browser which doesn’t show them at all. So, random reader, if you’re viewing this on AOL, stop, open up a real browser and see what you’ve been missing all this time. When done, feel free to return to AOL’s browser and you’re regularly scheduled browsing. Just don’t click on those smiley banners, okay?