Favicons

March 3, 2004 12:32 PM

You know those little icons that are showing up in the address bars of certain websites - like the MF one for metafilter. How does someone do that? (I ask cos' I wanna do that i don't know how to do that) thanks.
posted by Peter H to computers & internet (11 comments total)

they're called favicons...and now that you know, you can go nuts with google. But this should get you started.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 12:36 PM on March 3, 2004

webmonkey
posted by scarabic at 12:38 PM on March 3, 2004

This is all you need.
posted by machaus at 12:40 PM on March 3, 2004

It's called a "favicon" and the filename is generally http://www.yoursitehere.com/favicon.ico . There are lots of ways to make them, but probably the best and easiest way is Chami.com's Favicon maker, which turns an existing GIF/JPG/PNG into an icon suitable for downloading. Because the icon is so tiny, you may need to make/use a very simple image with minimal colors, or else no one may be able to tell what it is.

Also, add this line of code to the top of your web pages to implement it:

[link rel="shortcut icon" href="/favicon.ico" /]

(Replace the square brackets with pointy brackets.)
posted by Asparagirl at 12:41 PM on March 3, 2004

this is all incredibly helpful, thanks mucho!
posted by Peter H at 12:43 PM on March 3, 2004

ha, that 'o' accidentally got stuck at the end of 'much'
still works tho, mucho mucho! (excuse the accidental faux-spanish tho - but thank you all for the links, very helpful)
posted by Peter H at 12:46 PM on March 3, 2004

Oh, and once you get going, be advised that lots of people have trouble getting the icon to show up immediately, and many people see the icons disappear from their bookmarks after a few days. There are other threads on this somewhere...
posted by scarabic at 12:46 PM on March 3, 2004

For that problem you need FavOrg. The thread scarabic refers to was in AskMe last month, I believe, if someone would care to find it...it includes a way to download this free app without paying PCMag that will not be readily apparent from the link I've given.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 1:43 PM on March 3, 2004

I love favicons, but unlike the earlier version of Mozilla I was using, I no longer see them in my bookmarks in Mozilla 1.6. Does anyone know why or how to restore them?
posted by Lynsey at 2:21 PM on March 3, 2004

Lynsey: clear your cache. Mozilla stores the favicons in it's cache; when it's full, they go bye-bye. It's not much fun.
posted by cheaily at 9:59 PM on March 3, 2004

Does the favicon really need to be in the same directory as other files for the web site? I'd like to add one to a site that's hosted by Blogger, and I don't have the ability to add files to the directories there. I can host images elsewhere, though. Can it be done?
posted by emelenjr at 6:09 AM on March 4, 2004