I loaded up Gmail this morning expecting to see the usual assault on my inbox, when something new caught my eye. Apparently, Google has started inserting favicons, the little icons that many browsers put next to a website’s URL or bookmark, next to messages.

So far, I’m only seeing it for emails from Netflix. As you can see below, their Gmail favicon matches their website favicon. Others are seeing it too, but again, only for Netflix right now.

The use of these icons is somewhat interesting because it definitely does draw your eye’s attention to these emails. If spammers figure out how to insert these, it could be a bad thing. But for sites like Netflix, it’s another fairly useful way to visually sort email. Anyone else seeing these for any other sites yet?

Also, yes, I realize that I’ve just revealed to the world that I rented Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. Don’t judge.