My Favorite Favicon

The savvy readers of Traveler Bill (dot) com will notice the newest addition to the website, as rolled out by Traveler Bill Industries Director of IT, Matilda Dundee-Read.  It is, of course, a Traveler Bill favicon!  What is a favicon you ask?  Well it is a “square icon associated with a particular website or webpage”1

With this, the (almost) last piece of the puzzle in place this seems like an appropriate time to review the various web-browsers available on the market today…at least in regard to their efficacy in viewing Traveler Bill (dot) com

They are, in descending order of preference and as displayed above.

4 – Explorer 8–Microsoft Windows
This browser tied for the highest Traveler Bill Logo favicon count with three (The navigation bar, the bookmarks bar and on the tab.)  Alas it is also Windows so I never actually use this browser except when viewing on-demand movies from Netflix.  Also, learn from my mistake – DO NOT DOWNLOAD EXPLORER 8.  It is buggy and may cause your system to crash like mine.  I escaped by having an IT Director who could resolve these issues.  Unless you do too I suggest you look elsewhere.

3 – Safari – Apple
This browser had the lowest Traveler Bill Logo favicon count with only one measly location. (In the navigation bar.)  While it is probably a better product (even for Windows users) than Explorer, I use this browser less frequently.  (As I bear a closer resemblance to John Hodgman than that other guy I disdain Apple products.  Except my iPod and iTunes which are both the bees knees!)

2 – Chrome – Google
This is the newest kid on the block in the web browser field and has been my browser of choice for the past few months.  It has a middle of the road favicon count at two (On the Tab and in the Bookmarks tab).  So why is this NOT my number 1 choice?  Because it has less than stellar performance when displaying Traveler Bill (dot) com.  I’ve gone through a lot of trouble, and when I say “I” I am speaking with the “Royal I“, to make this a more sophisticated site than is currently warranted and if the most basic of the bells and whistles don’t make noise, then why bother.

1 – Firefox – Mozilla
Firefox tied Explorer for favicon occurrences with three. (Explore bar, Bookmark bar and on the tab (not shown, but trust me.))  Additionally, it ably display all the new features of Traveler Bill (dot) com.  In all likelihood if I hadn’t moved all my bookmarks to Chrome, I’d have been using this browser all along.  As it is, I will be using it going forward.  True to my word I composed this entry on Firefox.

So to sum it up, the Traveler Bill Industries Walrus of Approval for Web Browser is awarded to Mozilla Firefox.

Traveler Bill

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1 From the Wikipedia entry for favicon.