So as to waste some more time today, I converted a .jpg file to .ico and put it in favicon.ico. The .jpg is less than 1KB big; the .ico file is ** 60KB ** !!, bigger than the html page I'm putting it on.
I used the online converter at
http://www.coolutils.com/online/image-converter/
60KB cannot be a reasonable size for an icon. Can it?
Thanks!
-- pete
.ico files are unique because they can contain multiple resolution images and the most appropriate one is used. The site probably created many resolutions and included them in a single file. Windows 7 supports icons up to 512x512 I think. You may have seen this in windows when a different icon is used for thumbnail vs. listview. If you want an icon for a website then just make a png. All the modern browsers support it and the size will be a lot smaller. Hope that helps!
<link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="http://example.com/myicon.png">