Users of our very own Better GReader Firefox extension have been able to turn on favicon support for their feeds in the Reader sidebar for a while now (a favicon is, for example, the little 'lh' that displays next to the address bar when you're visiting Lifehacker); now the folks on the Reader team have caught up, adding favicon support for your subscriptions.
Web application Icon Grabber takes a Favicon, the little icon in the address bar, and saves it to PNG, GIF or JPG format from any web site.Using the web application couldn't be simpler—just paste in the URL, select the output format, click the Grab It button, and then right-click and save the grabbed icon from the page. Once you've saved the icon you can use it in a dock or launcher application that supports regular image files. Note that even without using this application, you can download the favicon as an ICO file from almost any website by simply appending /favicon.ico to the end of the URL, and using the right-click menu to save to a file—but converting icons to image format takes another step. Icon Grabber is free, simple, and easy to use. To create your own Favicons, use previously mentioned Favicon Generator, then assign them to any Firefox bookmark with the Favicon Picker extension, or you can just block distracting animated favicons.
If you're looking for a quick way to create a favicon—the tiny little logo that appears in bookmarks and address bars—for your web site, Favicon Generator offers dead simple image importing, editing, and conversion. Favicon Generator is a web-based service that converts GIFs, JPEGs, and PNG files into 16x16 pixel ICO files suitable for use as web site favicons. Why the special ICO format? Although most modern web browsers are perfectly capable of loading favicons in PNG and other formats, Internet Explorer is a bit behind the times and still requires ICO format. In addition to converting existing files into ICO format, you can also create a favicon from scratch with the editing tool. Unfortunately you can't load converted images, as with previously reviewed Favicon.cc, but Favicon Generator still has a lot of convenience to recommend it. If you have another site or tool you use for editing icons, favicons or otherwise, share the wealth in the comments below.
Windows only: System utility FavIconizer fixes your Internet Explorer bookmarks, bringing back missing Favions to your favourites toolbar.Using the application (which requires no installation) is as simple as pushing the Find missing FavIcons button. Your bookmarks will be scanned and any missing icons will be populated, or you can choose to rescan all of the links in case Google updates their favicon again. This utility might come in handy for Internet Explorer users frustrated with icons disappearing randomly over time, or not showing up in the first place. FavIconizer is a free download, Windows with Internet Explorer only. Firefox users can customise any favicon with the previously mentioned Favicon Picker extension.
Mac users rockin' Firefox 3 who like to see web site icons on their bookmark toolbar already know that the previously mentioned Mac Favicon extension isn't Firefox-3 ready yet. But a user style can give you back those pretty icons instead. You'll need Stylish to install the Mac bookmark toolbar favicons user style, but it'll get your toolbar looking as good as the Windows version. Mac bookmark toolbar favicons
