At 12:48 AM 1/24/2009 +0000, Bobby Jack wrote:
The problem is those businesses - and they do exist - that enforce
IE6 usage with no alternatives available.
If we can't convince them, maybe google can:
http://www.fiveminuteargument.com/blog/google-save-us
That would be a *horrible* idea -- not only for web site designers,
but for just the average person doing web searches, too -- at least,
it would be if they implemented it as one of their default search
options, rather than as solely an advanced search option (waaaaaaay
down at the bottom of the advanced options).
As the article says...
"We've honed our alt attributes, learnt our doctypes, and migrated
all our layout tables to well structured HTML + CSS. But that still
leaves a large number of practitioners who have failed to do so. [...]
"[Google should start] indexing data about how well a site validates,
how accessible it is, what markup language (and version) it uses, and
any requirements (javascript, flash, etc.) it may have."
In other words, a site might rank high in search results simply
because it uses the latest doctype, and that everything validates
nicely -- but what Google's computers can't "see" (and I do mean
*see*) is how that site has all sorts of glitches, like that big
graphic that ended up placed on top of, and obscuring, the text
(because of lousy -- but valid! -- CSS), or that nav bar that isn't
showing up at all, basically the web site not only looks utterly
awful, but the information on the page is virtually useless.
And yet, this latter page would get higher rankings than, say, an old
table-layout designed page with an older doctype, which looks and
works just perfectly fine cross-browser, cross-version,
cross-platform, and is chock-full of meticulously researched, useful
information.
That's not a way for Google to index better -- that's just a way for
them to pander to the desires and wishful/hopeful aspirations a
special interest group (web designers) at the expense of everyone
(including, indeed, those very same web designers themselves). And
after it panders to web designers, then the Librarians of America
will demand that only web sites that exhibit correct use of grammar
(with no spelling mistakes whatsoever) be given higher rankings,
because all those not doing so are a detriment to the education and
development of our youth. And who will get pandered to next? One
might as well also go down to the local library, while we're at it,
and picket them until they throw away half of their inventory (at the
public's loss and expense) simply because certain books aren't
"state-of-the-art" to have been printed on acid-free paper.
Ron ;)
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