I don't have a favicon.ico, but my browser always makes a request for it.
Is it possible to prevent the browser from making a request for the favicon from my site? Maybe some META-TAG in the HTML header?
favicon
I don't have a favicon.ico, but my browser always makes a request for it.
Is it possible to prevent the browser from making a request for the favicon from my site? Maybe some META-TAG in the HTML header?
Best Answer
I will first say that having a favicon in a Web page is a good thing (normally).
However it is not always desired and sometime developers need a way to avoid the extra payload. For example an IFRAME would request a favicon without showing it. Worst yet, in Chrome and Android an IFRAME will generate 3 requests for favicons:
The following uses data URI and can be used to avoid fake favicon requests:
For references see here:
UPDATE 1:
From the comments (jpic) it looks like Firefox >= 25 doesn't like the above syntax anymore. I tested on Firefox 27 and it doesn't work while it still work on Webkit/Chrome.
So here is the new one that should cover all recent browsers. I tested Safari, Chrome and Firefox:
I left out the "shortcut" name from the "rel" attribute value since that's only for older IE and versions of IE < 8 doesn't like dataURIs either. Not tested on IE8.
UPDATE 2:
If you need your document to validate against HTML5 use this instead: