It started out with one or two. Just the other day I saw the following hoard of teeny web page reference icons and it dawned on me: This tiny icon stuff may soon become obnoxious.

Here is what I saw at the bottom of a news page article:

Once upon a time I recall seeing only two or three icons, one for Digg and maybe a few others. What’s shown above is bordering on the extreme.

Each of those icons represents a way to share the web page. You click on the icon and, for example, you can instantly share that store with the people you annoy on Twitter or Facebook. Supposedly having the tiny icon there makes it easier for humans than copying the URL, changing web pages, and inserting the URL into a post.

Here’s a handy list of what each icon represents:

Icon	Name
	Ask / MyStuff
	del.icio.us
	Digg
	Facebook
	Fark
	Furl
	Google Bookmarks
	Mixx
	MySpace
	Newsvine
	Propeller / AOL News
	Reddit
	Slashdot
	StumbleUpon
	Technorati
	Twitter
	Windows Live Favorites
	Yahoo! Bookmarks

This list contains only those icons I found on the news page I was looking out. Doubtless there will be more — and that’s the real crux of this issue.

Soon, I predict there will be teeny icon glut on web pages just like the System Tray / Notification Area in Windows became overburdened with tiny, annoying icons. Same thing!

Worse: Microsoft will devise one of their new “standards,” and think of a universal icon representing all other icons. Then things will really become a mess when Google does the same thing. Apple joins in the fray! One day, the little icons, controls, widgets, and buttons on a web page will take up more space than the information the web page is trying to present!