I don't understand -- are you saying you see pictographic icons useless in general, or only when they appear in a list of bookmarks? Quite a few people are quicker to recognize something from a picture than they are from a written description, which is why icons were invented in the first place.

Remember, that favicon is an icon for the list of favorites (IE's term for bookmarks) -- that was the original use of them, although if you are referring to having the icon next to the URL in the URL bar, that I can agree with -- that can be mostly pointless. Although some tabbed browsers make good use of them, by having them in the tabs themselves. Makes it real easy to see which tab belongs to which website.

> Quite a few people are quicker to recognize something from a picture than they are from a written description, which is why icons were invented in the first place.

Somebody should have told the team responsible for the Windows 7 start menu, where the items in the right-hand column have no icons until you're already pointing at them (and pause a moment) at which point they pointlessly draw attention away with a giant icon in a different place on the screen.

I find them incredibly handy even in this day and age, when I have multiple tabs open. The favicon is a great way to identify which tab belongs to which site at-a-glance.

Edit: Chrome. I read further down that Safari is no longer showing them in the tab bar.

I have a couple links in my bookmarks bar that I've reduced to just the icon. I'd rather waste bandwidth than screen real estate :)