Until very recently, I had no idea what a favicon was. But, upon the recommendation of new media consultant Marshall Kirpatrick (who’s been meeting with the roster of Nemo bloggers as of late), I was told to get one.

A favicon (short for favorites icon) is a 16×16 pixel icon that is associated with a particular webpage. If your browser supports a favicon, it appears in the upper left corner of the URL bar next to the site’s address. The favicon originally got its name from the file favicon.ico that was placed in the root directory of a web server. This would then show up in your display of favorites (bookmarks).

WHY SHOULD YOU GET A FAVICON?

Usability: Favicons help a user quickly find a webpage among multiple browser tabs without having to read the page titles. Also, they make scanning a big list of bookmarks much faster.

Branding Awareness: Favicons assist in making a visual representation of your site to visitors. They also make your site look more professional.

MAKING AND SOURCING FAVICONS

I won’t bore you with the details on how to make and install a favicon. There are tons of really solid tutorials floating around the web including those by Photoshop Support and The Site Wizard.

If you want a fantastic favicon in a hurry or can’t decide on an image to use, don’t fret! There are many great favicon resources:

a. Free Favicon has a nice selection of favicons with great depth and web 2.0 detailing.

b. Genfavicon is a favicon generator that allows you to upload an image to the site, crop it and immediately view the results. Chami offers a similar solution.

d. Faviconize shows off the best favicons from around the internet. The inspiration is endless!

e. Bluejar.com is offering 20 free themed favicon sets.

IN CLOSING

Favicons are one more tool in your branding arsenal with the power to distinguish your website. While favicons alone won’t make your site a force to be reckoned with, they are free and easy to make. Every little bit of branding helps, even if it’s only 16 x 16 pixels of visibility.

Tags: Branding, favicons, Usability

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 6th, 2008 at 10:12 am and is filed under Branding. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.