My post about Google's new favicon got me thinking: do law firms use favicons, and if so, how good are they?
A completely unscientific survey of "quite a few" firm websites tells me that only a small minority of law firms make use of this branding opportunity — and those that do have, by and large, really weak favicons.
Herewith five that I came up with:
  This is a weak one. It's the Cassels logo, seen to the right, in miniature. But at 16 x 16 pixels, the thing just doesn't translate well: the shape is unclear and the colours are washed out. - This is the strong one of the bunch, clear and clean. My only criticism here is that it's a fairly unimaginative symbol and may be fairly common — I haven't done the research. It does look a bit like the original Google favicon, though.
 - I honestly have no idea what this is supposed to be. I can barely see it. Is it a TV monitor? The pale grey on pale grey is decidedly wishy washy.
 - If I'm not mistake this is the firm name, Minden Gross, in 2 point type. Clearly a firm full of young folk whose eyes are still properly powerful, because for the rest of us this is merely a smear. Why would you whisper your name in a mumble like this?
 - Somehow Baker & McKenzie has got the Internet Explorer favicon tangled up with their website and is proudly shilling for Microsoft. If you doubt that it's there on their site, just go to http://www.bakernet.com/favicon.ico and see that the file is indeed on the root of their server. Clearly not a high priority matter with their IT folks.
Now lots of people say favicons are silly and not worth worrying about. They get cached in people's systems and can stay unchanged even when their origin site changes its icon. They can clutter up your hard drive and simply take up space.
I disagree. I think that visual branding is important on the internet, and sites' favicons are being used more and more in applications such as RSS readers, Twitter, etc. as tiny graphic brands. But worse than not having a favicon is having a weak or illegible one.
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So how come Slaw does not have a favicon??
Ah but it does.
http://www.slaw.ca/favicon.ico
This is one of the problems with favicons: some browsers are stubborn in their unwillingness to recognize them.
Point made Mr. Fodden.
I accessed the site from a different computer and the favicon magically reappeared.
sometimes I see it and sometimes I don't on the same computer, same browser. Oy!
I think our Harrison Pensa favicon works well – its our "HP" logo. My blog uses my elegal logo.
And I agree that the appearance of the favicon can be spotty. Sometimes one will be gone – but appear again the next time you go to the site.
I agree, David. And I like the home page — quietly elegant, understated.