# Why don't we have a favicon? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [November 30, 2008, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-have-a-favicon/475069 "2008-11-30T17:55:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-have-a-favicon/475069/1 "2008-11-30T17:55:37Z")
Title pretty much nails it. Why is my favorites list just have that generic IE icon for the Dope, why not something clever like most sites have? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-have-a-favicon/475069/2 "2008-11-30T18:10:20Z")
Good question. I have suggested one before, even [proposed a contest to generate ideas](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=7420613). TPTB need to revisit this again. ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-have-a-favicon/475069/3 "2008-11-30T18:23:43Z")
That’s right, you did have a thread on that, I remember reading that back when you posted it. Well hell then, let’s just get this resolved. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-have-a-favicon/475069/4 "2008-11-30T19:13:32Z")
There is a favicon for [the front page](http://www.straightdope.com/). It’s the “S” and “D” from the main banner. What we need is a separate favicon for each forum. Somewhat of an aside, but is there any way in Firefox to assign a favicon of our choice to sites without one? ---
**Author:** ![Mumio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@Mumio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mumio)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-have-a-favicon/475069/5 "2008-11-30T21:30:04Z")
How about just the S and D for the main forum page? ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-have-a-favicon/475069/6 "2008-11-30T21:50:36Z")
> [@ZenBeam](#): > > Somewhat of an aside, but is there any way in Firefox to assign a favicon of our choice to sites without one? Yes, the rather uncreatively named FavIconPicker 3 (1 and 2 no longer work). (Though that only works for bookmarked pages and drops the favicon for subpages, it does help with identifying bookmarks at a glance.) ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-have-a-favicon/475069/7 "2008-11-30T21:53:39Z")
> [@Mumio](#): > > How about just the S and D for the main forum page? Bo-ring ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-have-a-favicon/475069/8 "2008-11-30T22:48:03Z")
If you want the SD favicon for other pages, just bookmark the homepage and then manually change the address. The favicon should still be there. This works for Firefox, I don’t know about any other browser. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2008, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-have-a-favicon/475069/9 "2008-12-01T01:10:09Z")
> [@Tengu](#): > > Yes, the rather uncreatively named FavIconPicker 3 (1 and 2 no longer work). > > (Though that only works for bookmarked pages and drops the favicon for subpages, it does help with identifying bookmarks at a glance.) Got it, thanks. Haven’t restarted Firefox yet to try it, though. I have many of the forums in my toolbar, which I’d like to give their own favicons. Looking at the front page, they have most of the letters needed for GQ, GD, CS, GR, CC, SR, or they could be made pretty easily (the Q and the C, from an O and a G respectively). IMHO and ATMB would be harder; I’m not sure how to make an M, and they really want to be four letters, not two. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2008, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-have-a-favicon/475069/10 "2008-12-01T01:41:25Z")
> [@](#): > > Bo-ring For an icon of that size, you basically have two choices: Boring or cryptic. I’m glad that the Powers that Be here have opted for the former. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2008, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-have-a-favicon/475069/11 "2008-12-01T01:54:27Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > For an icon of that size, you basically have two choices: Boring or cryptic. Oh, i don’t think so. I have seen plenty of favicons that manage to be more creative than just two letters, while avoiding cryptic territory. MSN has a recognizable rainbow butterfly, BofA has their recognizable logo, even [WheresGeorge.com](http://WheresGeorge.com) has the all-seeing eye from a dollar bill. It can be done. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2008, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-have-a-favicon/475069/12 "2008-12-01T03:53:02Z")
Except that those all fall into the “cryptic” territory; they’re just things which the folks in question have managed to get so associated with their brand that it doesn’t matter. If you didn’t already have all the conditioning that said that “Butterfly with tetrachromatic wings” meant “MSN”, then it would tell you absolutely nothing about the site it belongs to. And frankly, you can’t get much more cryptic than the cyclopean pyramid. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2008, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-have-a-favicon/475069/13 "2008-12-01T05:38:55Z")
The Myspace icon took over as my SDMB favicon in my browser (Opera) a loooong time ago. I figured out how to fix it once, but then it happened again and I forgot. So I do have a favicon. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2008, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-have-a-favicon/475069/14 "2008-12-01T08:05:54Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > The Myspace icon took over as my SDMB favicon in my browser (Opera) a loooong time ago. I figured out how to fix it once, but then it happened again and I forgot. So I do have a favicon. Funny, my SDMB bookmark in Firefox has the iMDB favicon associated with it. I guess they do have three of their four letters in common. ---
**Author:** ![Lionne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Lionne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lionne)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2008, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-have-a-favicon/475069/15 "2008-12-03T21:26:36Z")
I just learned what a favicon is! Very cool