Recently,
many of you using Internet Explorer 5.0 (and higher) may have
noticed a new trend sweeping the Web. It's the latest craze
in name and logo recognition, and while it's certainly not
going to make you millions of dollars, it's probably worth
taking note of.
What am
I talking about? Favicon!
Favicon
stands for "Favorite Icon" and is a customized icon image
that you can use to ensure that your web site stands out
from the crowd. They appear as customized icons in a number
of places, chiefly in the bookmarked addresses under "Favorites"
and in the location bar, in place of the generic Internet
Explorer logo (i.e. the page with the "e" on it).
How does
it work?
It's simple!
Every time someone bookmarks you web site, your customized
icon will be displayed in their Favorites folder in place
of the generic Internet Explorer logo. You see, Internet Explorer
5.X has been specially programmed to automatically seek
out the Favicon file whenever it is asked to bookmark
a page. It is a function that cannot be turned off and is
completely transparent to the browser. Therefore, if you do
not have a Favicon file for your web site, your server logs
will register the "favicon.ico not found" error each
time that someone using an Internet Explorer 5.X browser bookmarks
you.
The beauty
of this is that your site becomes much more noticeable among
the other bookmarks… a feature that may help you to draw
more repeat visitors. Unfortunately, right now only Internet
Explorer 5.X supports Favicons. Neither Netscape users nor
Mac users (You Mac users always seem to get the short end
of the stick, don’t you ?!) have access to this funky feature.
However, don't be too quick to dismiss the usefulness of this
tool. Almost a quarter of all surfers are currently using
Internet Explorer 5.X… a fairly significant percentage!
So where
will your icon appear? There are six possibilities:
- The
Favorites directory of the visitor's browser. Here
your icon is sure to catch a few eyes among the list of
generic Internet Explorer icons.
- The
Favorites directory located off the Windows start button.
- In
the location bar. Imagine how professional this will
look! Every little bit counts, right?
- On
the desktop. If the visitor bookmarks the site, holds
down the control key, right clicks on the bookmark, then
drags it to the desktop, the icon will be copied there as
a shortcut.
- On
the taskbar. Again, if the visitor bookmarks the
site, holds down the control key, right clicks on the bookmark
and drags it to the task bar, the icon will be copied there.
- On
the links bar. As with the desktop and taskbar, if
the visitor bookmarks the site, holds down the control key,
right clicks on the bookmark and drags it to the Links Toolbar,
it copies the icon and title there.
Creating
your own Favicon is a pretty easy process. First, you'll need
to design your icon. Because the recommended image size is
16X16 pixels, you should keep the detail to a minimum and
use only a few colors.
You'll
need to make a file called "favicon.ico" in authentic icon
format. It is important to note that an icon file is not a
bitmap, and a bitmap file cannot be renamed with an .ico extension.
It just won't work. However, you can use a Bitmap to Icon
converter called "Bitmap to Icon" (original, huh?!). It's
freeware, so it won't cost you a cent and you'll be able to
convert any bitmaps that you currently have. To check it out,
go to: http://www.clickfire.com/viewpoints/articles/favicons.php
At Favicon.com
they provide a FREE Online Icon Generator that you
can use to design your icons. They also have an advanced shareware
program called "Icon-Forge Favicon.com Edition" which allows
you to import images and add effects. You can download both
of these programs at http://www.favicon.com
Some other
software options for creating your icon are:
- Microangelo
- a shareware program that allows you to create icons right
to the screen or to create a 16X16 in Photoshop, save it
as a .gif, open it in Microangelo, and then save it as an
icon. Your trial version of Microangelo can be obtained
at http://www.impactsoft.com
- Iccedit
by Great Owl Software - a shareware program that is
dedicated to icon creation. This fully featured icon design
program allows you to create top notch icons. They offer
a 21 day free trial. Check it out at http://www.greatowl.com
After
you've created your icon and named it correctly (favicon.ico),
you have a few choices:
- You
can place a copy of your icon in the root directory of your
site where most of your pages likely reside.
- If
you have a large site with multiple directories, you can
place a copy of your icon in each directory.
- You
can place your Favicon anywhere you like by including a
LINK TAG within the "HEAD" section of your HTML pages that
looks like this:
<LINK
REL="SHORTCUT ICON"href="/your/path/favicon.ico">
You
should then be able to reach your icon by going to:
http://www.yourdomainname.com/favicon.ico
It's probably
best to place a copy of your icon in each directory that contains
pages as well as in your root directory because Internet Explorer
5.X will first look for the Favicon in the current directory
of the page the visitor is bookmarking. This way, it's guaranteed
that Internet Explorer 5.X will grab the icon.
So, as
you can see, Favicon is a pretty great tool. While Mac Users
and loyal Netscape fans cannot view the customized icons,
the significant number of Internet Explorer 5.X users make
it worth the bit of extra effort. Favicons can not only help
you gain name and logo recognition, they exude a kind of professionalism
that will highlight your site among the generic Internet Explorer
icons. While this technique isn't likely to cause a sudden
sweeping wave of traffic to your site, it may very well help
you draw a few more repeat visitors… giving you another opportunity
to make your sale! Considering how little effort this takes,
it may be well worth your time!
And for
those of you who would like to update your browser to Internet
Explorer 5.01, go to:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.htm
Then
check out a few Favicons for yourself by bookmarking us, here
at the Internet Marketing Center (http://marketingtips.com),
Yahoo! (http://www.yahoo.com),
or MSN (http://www.msn.com).
Once you've done this, take a look at the location bar and
the favorites menu in your browser to see exactly how big
a difference a customized icon can make!
