![Two identical pixelated text displays side-by-side with blue text on black background, each showing 'redford', 'union', 'soccer', 'SUCKS', ':D :P :]' followed by a pink heart symbol.](/image/a876df4eb01c7c2b28fbd613f7ff3e4786be5aea5e2d37c8d9808f59e070cdee){kind=small}
![Green pixelated text and symbols on black background: 'Nikki<3 =]' with a heart symbol above, displayed in two identical side-by-side arrangements.](/image/a8918d426115075a17b6690aeaa1cd730ee008bc629c3d0ccddf2740b5ceb93f){kind=small}
![Pink background with white pixelated text and symbols: 'DSC' above a heart, 'iloveyou so much <333 :]' below.](/image/a89df052f60e4c82f1894363f490a86df84d6c03957143cb3129a6a3b26fc1b1){kind=small}
Preserving the tiny pictures that made the internet personal.
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Browse 73,606 preserved Text AIM buddy icons gathered from 561 source collections. This automatically maintained collection currently includes 70,089 animated icons and 73,606 icons with searchable visual descriptions.
A language of tiny pictures
A picture barely 50 pixels wide, sitting beside an AIM screen name, could announce a mood, a fandom, an inside joke, or who someone wanted to be that day.
Read the short historyRecovered from the early web
Buddy icons survive in old directories, fan sites, downloadable packs, and web archives. The archive preserves the original files, groups known copies, and records where each one was found.
How the archive works