what is a favicon + how to change it

Posted: December 6, 2006

that little icon up in your browser’s address bar is called a favicon. i have no freakin’ idea why it is called that but it is. i like to pronounce it like it is one word but i am pretty sure it is pronounced fav-icon. it is a cool way to give your site’s character a finishing touch and branding element. for some reason mine looks like a pubic hair but who knows maybe that is what i was going for?

now i love bluehost more than any other hosting company but the one thing i despise about them is the fact that they automatically set their logo as your default favicon. and their logo is not elegant in my opinion. well, it is what you would expect from a hosting company i guess. so if you don’t know how to change it (like most people) then you are stuck promoting an ugly a rubix cube looking thing. did i mention it was ugly? well have no fear! there is a super-cool site out there that helps you easily create your own custom favicon and it gives you the simple instructions on how to swap it out. it even gives you a preview in a browser to see if you like it before you download it and install it. i swear to god it is easy. if you can pimp your myspace account then you can do this you lazy bastard. you just have to have access to your ftp shit and if you don’t know how to do that then you are dead to me.

click here to go to the website + have fun

note: if you make the change to your site and the favicon doesn’t seem to be switching out it may be because your site has been stored in your system cache. either hit refresh or check it out in a different browser. for some reason i have had some favicons take like two days to switch out. i have no idea why - i didn’t claim to be the favicon master of the universe.

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