Monday, 23 November 2009

3 Spots Where Your Favicon is Shown

By David Broadhead, Ph.D.

If you're curious about where your favicon is displayed, just follow along, and you'll find out.

Let me give you two URLs. They happen to be two of my favorite websites, but most likely you've never heard of either of them. If you do happen to have visited one of them before, just pick the other one for this demonstration. That's so you can watch the favicon come up out of nowhere when your browser finds it and puts it where it's supposed to go. I'll give you the URLS, but you need to wait! Don't do anything until I tell you!

URL1: www.stormcarib.com

URL2: www.triddlers.com

1st Place: the Address Bar

OK. It's time. Open a new tab. If you can't do that, then just open a new window. Type the URL you picked into the Address Bar. But look at your screen quickly, or you'll miss the favicon's first appearance! It's going to show up just in front of the URL you're typing in.

2nd Place: the Tab Bar

Look at the browser tab. You should see the favicon right to the left of the title. If you don't have a tabbed browser, then you'll just have to miss seeing this favicon location.

3rd Place: Bookmarks or Favorites

If you've never seen this website, then obviously it won't already be in your bookmarks. To put it there, click on 'Favorites', then 'Add to Favorites'. Then click 'Add'. Hit your 'Favorites' button again, and you'll find the favorite you just entered at the bottom. The favicon should be right to its left.

If you recently created your own favicon, but you can't find it in any of its locations, don't worry! This is a frequent occurrence. Keep reading:

1) Clear your cache.

2) If that doesn't work, close your browser and reopen it.

3) If that fails also, then there can be only two reasons: a) The browser that you're using doesn't use favicons at all, which is not very likely, or b) Your favicon is FAKE!

OK, it says 'favicon.ico'. But it still might not be a REAL favicon. You have to create a favicon according to the proper procedure, or it won't work. The next paragraph has more info about the easiest way to do this.

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