On 11/17/05, Nicolas Mailhot <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Remind me to make you discover Google someday. It's a little-known site > crippled by lack of communication aids. Should take a lesson from > altavista.
Um.. when I went to Google.com <http://Google.com> - there was a huge *GRAPHIC* across the top of the page. And then a place that I could interact with, and a couple of buttons. Some of the stuff on the top was right-aligned, but most of it was centered. There were some spaced out links, (I couldn't see the url where they sent me, so I guess that would be called "masking a link" right?) All writen, I assume, in HTML. Then I wanted to check, so I viewed the source, and, lo and behold, there was a bunch of HTML. <html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"><title>Google</title><style><!-- body,td,a,p,.h{font-family:arial,sans-serif;} .h{font-size: 20px;} .q{color:#0000cc;} //--> </style> <script> <!-- function sf(){document.f.q.focus();} function rwt(el,ct,cd,sg){el.href="/url?sa=t&ct="+escape(ct)+"&cd="+escape(cd)+"&url="+escape(el.href).replace(/\+/g,"%2B")+"&ei=bd98Q8PcGpDwiwG6-IFU"+sg;el.onmousedown="";return true;} // --> </script> </head><body bgcolor=#ffffff text=#000000 link=#0000cc vlink=#551a8b alink=#ff0000 onLoad=sf() topmargin=3 marginheight=3><center><table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 width=100%><tr><td align=right nowrap><font size=-1><b>[EMAIL PROTECTED]</b> | <a href="/url?sa=p&pref=ig&pval=2&q=http://www.google.com/ig%3Fhl%3Den"; onmousedown="return rwt(this,'pro','hppphou:def','&sig2=QVuU5BLXYuJ1s6iqX-V6vA')">Personalized Home</a> | <a href="http://www.google.com/searchhistory/?hl=en";>Search History</a> | <a href="https://www.google.com/accounts/ManageAccount";>My Account</a> | <a href="http://www.google.com/accounts/Logout?continue=http://www.google.com/";>Sign out</a></font></td></tr><tr height=4><td><img alt="" width=1 height=1></td></tr></table><img src="/intl/en/images/logo.gif" width=276 height=110 alt="Google"><br><br> <form action=/search name=f><script><!-- function qs(el) {if (window.RegExp && window.encodeURIComponent) {var ue=el.href;var qe=encodeURIComponent(document.f.q.value);if(ue.indexOf("q=")!=-1){el.href=ue.replace(new RegExp("q=[^&$]*"),"q="+qe);}else{el.href=ue+"&q="+qe;}}return 1;} // --> </script><table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=4><tr><td nowrap><font size=-1><b>Web</b> <a id=1a class=q href="/imghp?hl=en&tab=wi" onClick="return qs(this);">Images</a> <a id=2a class=q href="http://groups.google.com/grphp?hl=en&tab=wg"; onClick="return qs(this);">Groups</a> <a id=4a class=q href="http://news.google.com/nwshp?hl=en&tab=wn"; onClick="return qs(this);">News</a> <a id=5a class=q href="http://froogle.google.com/frghp?hl=en&tab=wf"; onClick="return qs(this);">Froogle</a> <a id=7a class=q href="/lochp?hl=en&tab=wl" onClick="return qs(this);">Local<sup><a style="text-decoration:none"><font color=red>New!</font></a></sup></a> <b><a href="/intl/en/options/" class=q>more »</a></b></font></td></tr></table><table cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0><tr><td width=25%> </td><td align=center><input type=hidden name=hl value=en><input maxLength=256 size=55 name=q value="" title="Google Search"><br><input type=submit value="Google Search" name=btnG><input type=submit value="I'm Feeling Lucky" name=btnI></td><td valign=top nowrap width=25%><font size=-2> <a href=/advanced_search?hl=en>Advanced Search</a><br> <a href=/preferences?hl=en>Preferences</a><br> <a href=/language_tools?hl=en>Language Tools</a></font></td></tr></table></form><br><br><font size=-1><a href="/ads/">Advertising Programs</a> - <a href=/services/>Business Solutions</a> - <a href=/intl/en/about.html>About Google</a></font><p><font size=-2>©2005 Google</font></p></center></body></html> Or you could spend some of your time reading professional typography > guides (even going inside a real library !). 99,99% of HTML capabilities > are filed under "amateurish schoolboy effects which hinder > communication" there. > Not when done properly. "A picture is worth a thousand words" (that was penned before the Internet, back when people used libraries). When books were hand written over 500 years ago, someone still thought graphics were important to communication, and thus woodcarvings were used to create illuminated manuscripts. Cavemen would draw, not write, on the walls. Communication has always involved both words and images. That's why more time is spent with TVs than radios. It's as anceint as humanity itself, and as up-to-the-second as AFLAX. When Shakespeare wrote his plays, we hired people to dress up, in costumes, to act out his plays, on sets, with props, in order to communicate with people. He didn't just make copies of his script and hand them out. he could have. But maybe he was an amateurish schoolboy who had to use special effects to communicate, but that hinders communication, right? Oh, and Google - isn't that the company that owns - hello.com<http://hello.com>, blogger.com <http://blogger.com>, blogspot.com <http://blogspot.com>, picasa, Google Maps, and a bunch of other non-text based stuff? Hello and Picasa are all about pictures. Google map uses actual satelitte images overlaid on the map to help people know where they are going. Blogger and blogspot host tons of webpages complete with images, colors, font effects, etc. - all to help people communicate. Sure, some people MIS-use these tools, and cause more confusion than good - but used well, it can be a huge help. People can misuse plain text too, and look or sound stupid and amateurish. I've been accused of that a lot. And I didn't need HTML to do it. HTML is a tool. Just like anything else. -- - Chad Smith http://www.gimpshop.net/ Because everyone loves free software!
