Google Change Draws Massive Reaction

How can something that small play a role in defining your online business? Take a look at a change Google made a few days ago:

Old Look:

 

New Look:

If you take look in the address bar of your browser on most sites you’ll see a small graphic file called a ‘favorite icon’ which is basically a small image with the extension ‘.ico’. At WhyDoWork we use the palm trees ( whydowork ico file )from our very first logo (it has some nostalgic appeal to me).

It’s Important

If you’re still in doubt whether your audience cares or not if you have one, take a look at how many bloggers covered Google’s change over the last few days. Whether you’re consciously paying attention or not, its clear that there are folks out there who notice. The first time I hit Google after the change I instantly picked up on it.

It’s Easy to Make Your Own

Whenever I make a .ico file I usually use Adobe PhotoShop, but I recommend the Favicon from Pics service. All you need to do is upload a photo of your choice and it will be automatically resized and ready to use.

It’s Easy to Implement

 Once you have your 16×16 icon, insert it in your pages using the following line of code:

<link rel=”shortcut icon” href=”path-to/your-favicon.ico” >

Place that line directly before the closing </head> tag and confirm it worked by checking your address bar for the image. After the href= makes sure you have the correct path to where you’ve uploaded the image.

If you don’t already have a favorite icon created, take a few minutes now and get one created using elements of your color scheme or existing logo. It might be extremely small, but your audience will notice!

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