Favicon Madness - Are Google and Microsoft taking a leaf out of MIVA’s book?

April 1, 2009
by Richard Gregory

It seems Microsoft and Google are trying to add logos and brand images next to PPC results, very much like the concept initially pioneered by Espotting, known these days as MIVA.
Over the last few weeks Google has been testing the appearance of favicons (those small logos you see next to the address bar in your browser) in the search results. Plus today it’s been reported that Microsoft trialing favicons

Why?

There are a number of potential reasons:

- To help improve click through rates on paid search ads versus organic search listings. However, there had been previous sitings of favicons being tested in organic search results.
- To help better identify official brand owners by their logos, although sites without favicons best watch out, for example www.natwest.com
- To provide a more “interesting” results page for users.

It’s always been best practice to have a favicon for your site since it get’s recorded in a browsers favourites menu, and it is instantly recognisable in browser tabs.

If you’ve already got a favicon and want to see if it’s been spidered by Google, simply use the following URL, replacing YOURDOMAIN.COM with your site URL:

google.com/s2/favicons?domain=YOURDOMAIN.COM

The tests are as random as they usually are but if you see a favicon in a results page, be sure to send a screen grab through.