Windows 8 Pin METAs
Windows 8 allows for adding websites as apps (or maybe "bookmarks" is a better term) to the home screen, much in the vein that iOS allows users to do the same. Like iOS devices, Windows 8 allows users to accomplish this same task using custom META tags embedded within the page HTML:
<meta name="msapplication-TileColor" content="#FF0000" />
<meta name="msapplication-TileImage" content="/windows8-icon.png" />
The image size should be 144x144 and you'll want to define a custom background color with the META tag above. Tags like these are invaluable -- very little HTML to add but a giant convenience to users. Remember that the easier it is to get to your site, the more likely they will come back often!
![5 HTML5 APIs You Didn’t Know Existed]()
When you say or read "HTML5", you half expect exotic dancers and unicorns to walk into the room to the tune of "I'm Sexy and I Know It." Can you blame us though? We watched the fundamental APIs stagnate for so long that a basic feature...
![How to Create a Twitter Card]()
One of my favorite social APIs was the Open Graph API adopted by Facebook. Adding just a few META tags to each page allowed links to my article to be styled and presented the way I wanted them to, giving me a bit of control...
![Introducing LazyLoad 2.0]()
While improvements in browsers means more cool APIs for us to play with, it also means we need to maintain existing code. With Firefox 4's release came news that my MooTools LazyLoad plugin was not intercepting image loading -- the images were loading regardless of...
![Custom Scrollbars in WebKit]()
Before each of the browser vendors we like was providing unique CSS controls, Internet Explorer was setting the tone. One such example is IE's early implementation of CSS filters. Internet Explorer was also the first browser that allowed developers to, for better or worse, customize...
I wonder if there are HTTP headers that allows to do the same.
How do you actually go about adding the website as an app in windows 8?
Even though we *can* do this… it really bugs me that we have 8 different ways to set this kind of stuff per browser/device.
IMHO, it would have been much better if all browsers used the same “link” “favicon” in PNG/GIF/JPG format… and it had attributes for different size icons (device/browser to choose the best size for its needs)
Instead we have IE searching the at the server root for an icon in *.ico format, special meta tags for iOS, different tags for Windows8, etc. From a *lightweight* mobile perspective… cramming umpteen meta tags in to handle all the potential devices is totally counter productive!
Oh well… I guess this is progress!
why iOS allows users to do the same.
I agree with Stephen, with every other OS and social media site adding their own meta tags it’s bloating up the element.
That should have read head element.