Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A symbol or graphic associated with a website.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun web design An icon associated with a particular website, and typically displayed in the address bar of a browser viewing the site.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[fav(orite) + icon.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the original filename used by Internet Explorer, "favicon.ico", a blend of favorites and icon.

Support

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Examples

  • Make sure to name them appropriately if you load both BrainPOP and BrainPOP jr. links as the favicon is the same for both.

    BrainPOP FAQ | BrainPOP Educators 2009

  • The tern "favicon" is short for "favorite icon", and as such Internet Explorer will only display the favicon of a site if the site is recognized as one of your favorites (ie: if you have bookmarked the site in your browser!).

    Vigilante Sports 2009

  • The tern "favicon" is short for "favorite icon", and as such Internet Explorer will only display the favicon of a site if the site is recognized as one of your favorites (ie: if you have bookmarked the site in your browser!).

    Novelr - Making People Read 2009

  • Offering up a favicon is not a solution and asking the user to have an image already is completely unreasonable given how easy it should be to find a suitable image for them.

    Prism 1.0 Brings Dock/System Tray Integration To Your Webapps | Lifehacker Australia 2009

  • Having a favicon is yet another way to establish your identity and make it easier for people to remember your site among a pile of places.

    Archive 2007-06-01 2007

  • The favicon is such a simple piece of promotion, you really should have no excuse for not implementing it straight away.

    Archive 2007-06-01 2007

  • Creating a favicon is quite easy if you are, well, creative.

    Archive 2007-02-01 2007

  • Having a favicon is yet another way to establish your identity and make it easier for people to remember your site among a pile of places.

    Improve PR with Viral-Icons and Youtube 2007

  • The favicon is such a simple piece of promotion, you really should have no excuse for not implementing it straight away.

    Archive 2007-02-01 2007

  • Having a favicon is yet another way to establish your identity and make it easier for people to remember your site among a pile of places.

    Archive 2007-02-01 2007

  • The concept of a favicon, which is short for “favorite icon”, have been around since the early 2000s.

    How to Favicon in 2022: Six files that fit most needs—Martian Chronicles, Evil Martians’ team blog Andrey Sitnik 2023

Comments

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  • From netlingo:

    favorite icon

    The name for a small icon used in Internet Explorer (version 5 and higher) to identify a favorite or a bookmark.

    When users visit certain Web sites, you may see a "favicon" in the browser address bar next to the URL, and in your list of favorites next to the title of the Web site you've bookmarked. Favicons act as a branded icon as these small images are often modified versions of a company's logo. Most browsers support favicons, including IE 5/6+, Firefox 1+, Mozilla 1+, Netscape 7+, Opera 7+, Konqueror 3+, and Safari.

    June 7, 2008