Are there any technical problems using an animated GIF for a web site’s favicon instead of an actual .ico file?

Question

When putting a favicon on your site, you can apparently use an animated gif, just by changing the gif file’s extension to .ico.

• http://www.k-director.com/blog/how-to-add-an-animated-faviconico/

Have you encountered any problems doing this? (Aside from users being driven mad by some stupid little blinking favicon.)

Have you seen a browser get confused by a gif file with a .ico extension?

Answer 1

Older browser probably will have an issue with it. And as always remember that animations tend to annoy some people. Yes, favicons are small and in the address bar but some people used to turn off JavaScript just because of scrolling status bar messages. Just because you can do it doesn't mean you should.

Answer 2

I've now seen it at GetLoFi, and the usual ways to turn of animated gifs in a page don't seem to work. It is VERY annoying.