buddy icon (buddy avatar)
In AOL instant messaging, a buddy icon (sometimes called a buddy avatar) is a small image that a user can add to the lower left-hand corner of an instant message to represent the user or a buddy in their buddy list. According to AOL, a buddy icon can be any kind of GIF, JPG, ICO, or XBM image as long as the image takes up less than 7,168 bytes of disk space. There are many Web sites dedicated to helping users create buddy icons.