[besson3c]

I'm not sure if this phrase/term is something you would use to describe this, but what I'm referring to is the little tiny icon right to the direct left of the addressbar. For instance, in these forums it appears here as a checkmark.

How does this little thing work? Where does it get these icons from? How does it determine what icon to place there?

[Oneota]

Originally posted by besson3c:
I'm not sure if this phrase/term is something you would use to describe this, but what I'm referring to is the little tiny icon right to the direct left of the addressbar. For instance, in these forums it appears here as a checkmark.

How does this little thing work? Where does it get these icons from? How does it determine what icon to place there?

Many browsers do this; it works by having a .ico (Windows Icon format) file and somehow mentioning it in the HTML. More than that, I'm not sure.

Hopefully someone else can enlighten me further. I just rememer seeing a reference to .ico files in the source to sites that had those custom proxies.

[Musti]

Originally posted by Oneota:


Many browsers do this; it works by having a .ico (Windows Icon format) file and somehow mentioning it in the HTML. More than that, I'm not sure.

Hopefully someone else can enlighten me further. I just rememer seeing a reference to .ico files in the source to sites that had those custom proxies.

You're totally correct. From Microsoft Internet developer site, actually a colum called "Geek to Geek", an excerpt:

"All you have to do is create a standard Windows� icon file, name it favicon.ico, and stick it in the root of your Web site."

I wish browsers, when dragging-and-dropping the URL from the address bar to the desktop or the Dock, would retain this icon. Though the "springboard" URL icon in the Dock is cool, too.

[voodoo]

Originally posted by Musti:


You're totally correct. From Microsoft Internet developer site, actually a colum called "Geek to Geek", an excerpt:

"All you have to do is create a standard Windows� icon file, name it favicon.ico, and stick it in the root of your Web site."

I wish browsers, when dragging-and-dropping the URL from the address bar to the desktop or the Dock, would retain this icon. Though the "springboard" URL icon in the Dock is cool, too.

Strangely this does not work in IE for Mac. Despite being a M$ thing.

[CharlesS]

Instead of putting the favicon at the root of your site, it's also possible to put a link in your HTML code that references the file. This way, you can have multiple favicons per web site.

Here's the links you need to add:

<link rel="icon" href="some/path/to/favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon" />
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="some/path/to/favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon" />

The reason you need both of those is that apparently the various different browsers each read a different link for the favicon.

You can also use a .gif file instead of an .ico if you link to it this way. Unfortunately, when I tried this, it only worked with Mozilla and not with the Windows version of IE 6.

[SupahCoolX]

Originally posted by voodoo:


Strangely this does not work in IE for Mac. Despite being a M$ thing.

What?! Microsoft not even complying with their own standards? I've never heard of such a thing!

[kidfrostbite]

Mozilla actually supports these favicon formats: GIF,JPEG,PNG,MNG,XBM,BMP,ICO.

i think you can even use animated gifs...

mike