GoogleToolbar and favicon

asking for it everywhere

[smallcompany]

Why is this thing looking for a favicon (both ICO and GIF) in subfolders:

User Agent = Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; GoogleToolbar 5.0.2124.6042; Windows 6.0; MSIE 7.0.6001.18000)

[blend27]

this is nuts, I have over 1000 requests with the same UA you posted looking for .ico in improper location for .ico, (gets 403) in the past couple of days comming from the same IP in US(none google).

did you catch any of the improper HTTP headers?

[wilderness]

IMO, Google could take their toolbar and stick it where the sun don't shine.

Hordes of requests daily.
I was just today considering a redirect in an attempt to inform them of the longtime protocol location for ICO files.

[smallcompany]

But, why it's always Windows 6.0; MSIE 7.0.6001.18000

Fake UA?

If it's something wrong with GoogleToolbar, I would expect other OS and browser data to show up.
Or, it's just this combination which is kind of strange to me.

[jdMorgan]

It's likely that it's either it's a spoof, or you have your favicon path defined as relative to the current directory instead of relative to the server root directory (i.e. the leading slash on the path is missing in the on-page <link rel="shortcut icon" type="image/x-icon" href="/favicon.ico"> tag).

I have plenty of requests from that UA in my logs, and none of them have referenced the wrong location.

However, I do see occasional GoogleToolbar requests for /favicon.gif, and I assume this is because support for animated-GIF favicons has been added to some browsers recently. I'll theorize here that the Toolbar is just following along in supporting this new feature... Anyone else have a theory or experience-based evidence?

Jim

[smallcompany]

or you have your favicon path defined as relative to the current directory instead of relative to the server root directory

How do you define favicon path?

[wilderness]

Hey Jim,
Perhaps I'm dense?
Been using the same icon for nearly ten years.

The placement of the file has always been in the root directory. There may be some protocol that suggests this placement, however I've long forgotten the reference.

Checked some files and I do not have a path defined any where.

It's peculiar that I/We have never been required to define this for any other browser and now we must?
Is it our lack of protocol or the software's lack of compliance?

Don

[jdMorgan]

wilderness,

Old browsers needed it to be defined IIRC, and the icon path must be defined if it is not located in the server root. Since I keep all of my images in a separate directory, and since interpreting the <image x-icon> tag is an indicator of a real (as opposed to spoofed) browser, I have always used it.

Smallcompany,

I already posted the HTML code above...

Jim

[tangor]

This last two weeks I've had the same behavior show up. Requesting favicon from an inner folder, a DELETED FOLDER no less, looking for both ico and gif versions with back to back requests. Nine different ips in four ranges. Getting 404s.

Not HEAVY traffic... 60-100 requests a week.

[blend27]

it's getting to my logs, may be i should send a MEG of binary back. Would that do it?

[smallcompany]

This still bugs me from perspective that it was not happening before. This is new. Anyone to comment why?

Thanks

[tangor]

Tracked my logs this year. Started February 11. Have a dozen UA's involved. To date 1200 hits (which is nothing in the general scheme of things).

Pretty much let this one go. Asking for something that's nothing to start off with and does not impact my sites.

It is queer, but not that dang queer. Off to slay other dragons.