Favicon fun

You have to be something of a web geek to even know what a favicon is.  In simple terms it is the tiny graphic that is next to the URL in your browser.

A good example is to go to the Virginia fall foliage forecast.  You will see a heart next to the URL in most cases. 

The best article that I have found is  "Mysteries Of The Favicon.ico" by Jennifer Apple.  If you have Photoshop, you first have to download a file format extentsion.

Then you can create the icon by starting on a larger size image and reducing it 16X16 pixels before you save it.

Then it just takes a little code inserted into your web page to have a favicon.

I took a different tack, I took photos and cropped them in unusual shapes to create my favicons.

You can check out a couple of different favicons for two pages with the same content at Coastal NC Realtor and Coastal NC Realtors.  They are the same page with different favicons.

In addition to the Realtor® sites this image is also the basis for one of the favicons which I am also using on CoastalNC.org site.  Certainly favicons create some recognition when you're doing tabbed browsing.

I actually think they are sort of fun and can be a little whimsical.

The dog having so much fun racing the waves is my youngest daughter's, Lab-Boxer who is named Dozer.

Since I have just started playing with favicons I have tried some interesting designs.  There are online editors that you can also use.

This editor by Steven Degraeve allows you to create the icon online and download it.  You can also upload a png image and have it turned into a favicon.  I had some fixed results with it, but the favicon with Dozer in it was created using it.  I had cropped the imagine in Photoshop first.

A little cropping and this image to the right ended up as my second favicon.  I don't think it is nearly as much fun as Dozer romping through the waves.

I'm still playing with the house of water on my Realtor® as a favicon.   Initial results haven't been what I'm looking for as a image.

If nothing else, very few people at your Super Bowl party will know what a favicon is.  Probably even fewer will care, but I still think it is a neat piece of knowledge.