Favicons – the small icons that add a big presence
on August 2nd, 2006 at 10:11 pm
The default browser for most users is Microsoft Internet Explorer, which is quite unfortunate when it comes to many things including favicons.
What are favicons? They are the small image or icon to the left of the URL address. IE keeps it’s blue “e” icon in place of current website’s icon. I believe any version over 4.0 does not render the favicon as it should. Maybe with the release of version 7, this particular problem will be addressed and fixed?
The best way to view these images is with FireFox, Opera or other non MS browsers. You can download FireFox for free and it has been greatly improved the last few versions to be superior to IE in many ways.
You can find a Firefox download link button on the index page of WebPaws.com.
The code to insert favicons into your web pages are as follows:
The “shortcut icon” is the default/standard code, whereas the “icon” can be added to make sure most all (except ver. 4 – 6 IE) browsers pick up the image. This code should be added in between head code of your HTML document.
Making the image requires special software that converts .bmp files to an .ico file but in several layers (format and size), from 16 bits to 96 bits. A Multi-format or Multi-size Icon is an .ico file with a special structure. Every multi-format icon file contains several icons which are different in size or color depth.
If you need to hire someone to build your favicon, WebPaws.com will certainly help you with that.
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