![Pixelated text reads 'dont cha wish ur icon was hot like mehot like me lol :]'; cyan heart animation replaces the smiley in second view.](/image/9eb5a81487519f76a8a810ce6f3cffe1982df697570fd1376effba103eac47e5){kind=small}
Preserving the tiny pictures that made the internet personal.
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Browse 104,120 preserved Text AIM buddy icons gathered from 652 source collections. This governed collection currently includes 98,701 animated icons and 104,120 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