There is another - and more simplified - version of Google favicons service: http://s2.googleusercontent.com/s2/favicons?domain_url= http://s2.googleuserconten

There is another - and more simplified - version of Google favicons service: http://s2.googleusercontent.com/s2/favicons?domain_url= http://s2.googleusercontent.com/s2/favicons?domain_url= You can also pass a full URL to domain_url parameter, e.g.: http://s2.googleusercontent.com/s2/favicons?domain_url=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.ycombinator.com%2Fitem%3Fid%3D4028603 http://s2.googleusercontent.com/s2/favicons?domain_url=http%... So no need to find the host name, just be sure to encode the URL It also works with HTTPS connection.