Re: favicons: updated editor's draft [ACTION-276]

On 8-Aug-07, at 10:15 AM, Thomas Roessler wrote:

> Per ACTION-276 from last week's call, I've tried a rewrite of some
> of the favicons material in the light of the discussion at our last
> call; see:
>
>   http://www.w3.org/2006/WSC/drafts/rec/rewrite.html#site-identifying
>   @@Web Security Context@@
>   Editor's Draft $Date: 2007/08/08 14:11:27 $

[...]

> Comments are, as always, welcome.

Sorry to not have been on the call last week. I can tell you that the  
NECCESSARY techniques that MUST be implemented by a conforming web  
user agent (as per 7.1.3) are unrealistic in terms of meshing with  
user experience, and are, I think, throwing the baby out with the  
bathwater. Specifically the requirement to not show a favicon in the  
Location Bar.

The favicon has become the visual avatar of a website, allowing for  
brand association, and easing several tasks including scanning  
through bookmarks, history and tabs to ease the task of locating (or  
recalling) a specific entry.

This entire section seems to exist because security indicators  
presently look like favicons, and since the website can simply copy  
that image and make the favicon look like a security indicator, easy  
spoofing and confusion is possible.

Was any consideration given to requiring that security indicators be  
made such that they are not the same size and format as favicons? So,  
in other words, not 16x16 graphics?

cheers,
mike

Received on Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:33:30 UTC