A favicon (also short for favorite icon), is a file containing one or more small icons, being associated with the tag icon for the particular website or web page. Favicons are actually great implementions that web-designers love to use to make a page more interactive. Browsers that do support favicon typically display a page's favicon in the browser's address bar and next to the page's name in a list of bookmarks.
Below are just a few examples to some favicons you may be familiar with (with respectible links).
In march 1999, Microsoft released Internet Explorer 5, which suported favicons for the first time. At this time, the favicon was a file called "favicon.ico" placed in the root directory of a web site. It was mainly used and seen in the browser's bookmarks and next to the URL in the address bar if the page was bookmarked. Now you really don't have to bookmark a site for it's favicon to actually show up. When starting to create a favicon, one main thing must come into account. The format for a favicon must be 16x16 pixels or 32x32 pixles, using 8-bit or 24-bit colors. The format of the image must be one of PNG, GIF, or ICO. Creating large detail images will just not work, going with something simple that fits the pixel range and looks nice and fits with the site is the only way a favicon can be successfully done.
To actually create the favicon for this site, a 8-bit per pixel was used to create the colors. The image is exactly 17x17 pixels large and fits very well when constructed to the actual size. For better refrence, always make favicons basic and easy to read when it is at actual size. The colors were all typed in binary code using the 8-bit scheme.
Below is the binary code of the favicon, to the right is the actual 17x17 image size. 
000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 110011001100 110011001100 110011001100 110011001100 110011001100 110011001100 110011001100 110011001100 110011001100 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 110011001100 110011001100 001111001111 001111001111 001111001111 001111001111 001111001111 001111001111 000010001111 110011001100 110011001100 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 110011001100 110011001100 001111001111 001111001111 001111001111 001111001111 001111001111 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 110011001100 110011001100 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 110011001100 110011001100 001111001111 001111001111 001111001111 111111111111 111111111111 111111111111 111111111111 110011001100 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 110011001100 110011001100 000010001111 000010001111 110011001100 001111001111 001111001111 001111001111 111111111111 111111111111 110011001100 110011001100 110011001100 110011001100 110011001100 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 110011001100 000010001111 000010001111 110011001100 001111001111 001111001111 111111111111 111111111111 110011001100 110011001100 110011001100 110011001100 110011001100 110011001100 100010001000 000010001111 000010001111 110011001100 000010001111 000010001111 110011001100 001111001111 001111001111 111111111111 000000000000 110011001100 110011001100 110011001100 110011001100 000000000000 110011001100 100010001000 000010001111 000010001111 110011001100 000010001111 000010001111 110011001100 001111001111 001111001111 111111111111 000000000000 000000000000 110011001100 110011001100 110011001100 000000000000 000000000000 100010001000 000010001111 000010001111 110011001100 000010001111 000010001111 110011001100 001111001111 001111001111 111111111111 111111111111 110011001100 110011001100 110011001100 110011001100 110011001100 100010001000 100010001000 000010001111 000010001111 110011001100 000010001111 000010001111 110011001100 001111001111 001111001111 001111001111 000010001111 110011001100 110011001100 000000000000 110011001100 100010001000 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 110011001100 000010001111 000010001111 110011001100 001111001111 001111001111 000010001111 111111111111 000010001111 111111111111 000010001111 110011001100 000010001111 100010001000 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 110011001100 000010001111 000010001111 110011001100 001111001111 001111001111 000010001111 111111111111 110011001100 000010001111 110011001100 000010001111 100010001000 100010001000 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 110011001100 000010001111 000010001111 110011001100 001111001111 001111001111 000010001111 000010001111 111111111111 110011001100 110011001100 100010001000 100010001000 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 110011001100 000010001111 000010001111 110011001100 001111001111 001111001111 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 110011001100 100010001000 100010001000 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 110011001100 000010001111 000010001111 110011001100 001111001111 001111001111 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 110011001100 000010001111 000010001111 110011001100 001111001111 001111001111 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 000010001111 110011001100 000010001111 000010001111 110011001100 100010001000 110011001100 110011001100 110011001100 110011001100 110011001100 110011001100 110011001100 110011001100 110011001100 110011001100 110011001100 100010001000 110011001100 000010001111
That is a lot of binary for just a 17x17 pixel image right!