If you like to bookmark or add a site to your favorites to revisit, you will appreciate this service. I have numerous sites saved and organized in folders, but there are so many that it takes a while to find the one I want. Most sites have the Internet Explorer icon or whatever you may have for your default, but those with customized icons can be found quickly. We have the blue PP for Power Pages Web Design.

The icon is a single file with the extension .ico and can be viewed by icon creator software or the browser. The image is usually 32 x 32 pixels, which is very small so the design is simple. We recommend initials or a symbol with few colors for better viewing.

The icon appears for Internet users that use browsers that support icons. Those browsers include IE5+, Mozilla 1.0+ and Netscape 7 on Windows, Galeon, and Konqueror for Linux, and possibly others. The browser only requests the favicon.ico file when you add a site to your favorites. Then the browser saves the icon in the Temporary Internet Files. If you clear out the Temporary Internet Files, the favicon.ico will disappear.

Be careful when downloading "free" icons from the Internet. Sometimes you install the icon and spyware or a virus. The American flag icon was downloaded quite a bit since the war and the American holiday. Unfortunately, there were many reports of viruses in connection with these icons. Do not download suspicious files and remember to scan files with antivirus software.

Power Pages Web Design can create a customized icon for your website to improve your site's visibility when bookmarked or saved as a desktop shortcut. We have samples available upon request. They must be tested online in your browser, because they must be uploaded to the web server/host. Some web hosts (usually free hosts) do not support customized icons which are considered multimedia files. Contact us for more information.

Customized icons can also be used for desktop applications. If you have an existing desktop application that can be installed on the user desktop, a customized icon would be convenient. The user can click the recognized icon for your application to start the program. Icons are great brand recognition symbols. Contact us for your customized icon.