I've made favicons before, but most of them are so tiny, you can't really see fine detail. If you have ever made a favicon, how do you get it small.detailed enough to work as a favicon, but still plain enough to get the message across and be easily recognizable?

Just use a site like this to generate it.. Make the symbol in photoshop and upload it

a good way to make small icons in photoshop is to create a new file with the size of your final icon.. then zoom it until it takes all your screen.. then, in photoshop, go to Window and create a new window for the same file.. and put it at 100%.. so, you can work on the big one and see how it will look in the final small size =D
and then download a program like IcoFX (free) and open the file you made in photoshop and save it as an .Ico.. or just find a ico plugin for photoshop..
do this and you'll be rockin' icons in no time =D

I actually am in the process of trying to figure out what kind of favicon I want for my site. I want something recognizable but unlike what other websites in the same genre already have....

Okay, I have to admit that I've never heard of a favicon. What exactly is it and where and why would I use this thing, whatever it is?

Favorite icons are known as favicons which are the little icons that show next to bookmarks and in the address bar of most browsers. There size is mostly determined as 16*16, 32 *32, 64*64 pixels.

You can make a jpeg file on any graphic programs you are comfortable with. Once that you have created the detailed favicon then you can resize it to the size of a normal favicon.

I had never heard of a favicon before. Thanks for all the info. I always hate to be behind the times. How long has the term favicon been around. Just curious to know how long I have been in the dark with this one!