A favicon is an icon associated to a website or web page, it is also called website icon or page icon. There are several ways to implement it but the most traditional one is placing a favicon.ico image file. This image is going to be displayed in the web browser tool bar and bookmarks.
Favicons are not only important for marketing and branding proposes but also for usability:
- Favicons help the user to identify pages among the web browser tabs
- They help to visually identify bookmarks
- Because of the previous two points, they make users to save time and to make internet browsing a more comfortable experience
Tabs
Notice how easy it is to identify tabs if they have favicons:
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Bookmarks
Users can easily search through bookmarks that have favicons:
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The Branding Problem
Sometimes using favicons requires to make a balance between branding and usability. In the following example Google uses the same favicon for all its services. This has a positive and a negative effect: on one side different services benefit from the main Google brand if they share the same favicon, on the other side it makes difficult to differentiate different pages and services from the same company. This a valid approach but using several favicons for different services of the same company/website could improve usability.
The Google favicon among different services:
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humm…. right a favicon looks nice for sure. I have seen some very intelligently made favicons also.
Any idea whether search engines give it any importance?
Yeah, favicons should be more common I think. People are coming round to the idea, but there’s still a lot of people making my tabs look boring.
The Importance of Favicons…
A favicon is an icon associated to a website or web page, it is also called website icon or page icon. There are several ways to implement it but the most traditional one is placing a favicon.ico image file. This image is going to be displayed in the w…
I find them invaluable on the top toolbar of Firefox. I have no text describing the website on the toolbar of sites I like to visit. I only have the Favicon. This lets me have 25 pages one click away. If I had to have the sites name up there as well I would have less than half that amount.
Every blog and site should have a favicon, it’s easy for the readers to identify your site, if you`re not a great designer making your own, there is not excuse, there are a lot tools on line that can be used.
Great blog!.
Saludos desde Guadalajara, México.
how can you get favicons to display on tabs in safari? I dont seem to see any at the momet…
Nice article. I always try to incorporate a favicon design into my site design process.
[...] Favori ikon kullanmanın avantajları. Basit ama güzel bir bilgi. Bağlantı [...]
I agree. A good favicon that is readable without looking at the logo or content underneath is great for branding purposes.
They also make you site look more professional. My opinion anyway.
I take a site, the company, the designer, etc. more seriously when I see one.
Speaking of Google’s favicon, they just changed it.
The new one is actually horrible as a brand identity. IMO. Compared to the old one.
Now I’m lost when I’m looking through my tabs in Firefox to get back to any of my Google pages.
Favicons have nothing to do with search engine visibility.
[...] Four Free Online Favicon Generators Posted by Pallab on 17 May, 2009 No comments yet This item was filled under [ The Web, Wordpress ] Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.The tiny 16×16 pixel website icon (known as favicon) that graces every website window (or tab) is probably one of the most ignored aspects of website design. Favicons not only helps you in building your brand but also is an essential aid to heavy-duty surfers. They allow user to quickly identify your webpage amongst the myriad of tabs or bookmarks. Design vs Art Blog has a nice post on the importance on favicons. [...]
Alexis, thanks for good post. But i want to add one note:
1. Besides usability and branding, favicons is interesting kind of pixel art.
2. In Russia, we often use well-known search engine yandex.ru, which in search result show favicons.
Sorry for my English. )