Link This | Email this | Blog This | Comments (2)

favicon.ico - Really Easy Marketing!

October 8, 2007 Want to set your library page apart from other sites? There is a very easy, but little known, trick that can help your personalize your library website. Look up in the address bar of your browser...See the custom icon to the left of the http://? That is called a favicon - or favorites icon. Web browsers look for a favicon.ico file when they load a web address; if they find one, they use it as an icon in the address bar, in browser tabs, as a desktop shortcut icon, and other places. What a great way to get your library logo in front of web users.

So why doesn't every site have a favicon if it is this powerful? The problem has been that creating a favicon.ico was a pain. Not hard, but it did take special software and a bit of knowledge. But now there is a solution. Favicon.cc is a web-based program that lets you build a favorite icon pixel by pixel. Or, if you have a simple logo or image, you can import a graphic and have it automatically reduced to icon size. This program is about as easy as it gets - click in the color selection area on the right to set your color, and then click in a pixel to make it that color. The icon size preview shows up in realtime in the bottom middle image.

So what is stopping you? No time? Not graphical? This would make a great library contest. Set your students free and see what they come up with. Don't have access to your website directory? What a great opportunity to open a conversation with the tech department. Read up on favicons so you can comfortably explain what they are, that all you have to do is drop the file into the root directory for your website (root means the top level for your site), and that they too can create a favicon for the school site at favicon.cc.

Posted by Chris Harris on October 8, 2007 | Comments (2)