The state of the Web Standards

isn’t very good, according to Google’s analysis of 1 billion pages.

  • table and br tags are heavily used (and almost certainly are presentationally),
  • Most pages don’t use class, but those that do use them in a way that suggests new html elements could be useful,,
  • there’s loads of Microsoft-generated crap everywhere.

Mind you, if the web standards brigade shake our heads in sorrow, the Semantic Web gang must be sobbing into their beer and phoning the Samaritans.

4 Responses to “The state of the Web Standards”

  1. Comment by Matt Machell

    Yeah, it’s fascinating reading, isn’t it.

    And by fascinating, I mean slightly saddening. Still, I suppose we have no previous data to look at the improvement.

    There is an improvement, right?

  2. Comment by Bruce

    The report mentions that the title tag is heavily used - but it’d be nice to know how many merely contain the words “Untitled document” …

  3. Comment by Allan

    Close on 45 million (44,800,000) would be my guess:

    http://www.google.com/search?as_q=Untitled+Document&as_occt=title

  4. Comment by Alessandro Ansa

    Disappointing, but still, the 1 billion pages probably includes a whole raft of old pages that people had forgotten about or intend to redesign at some point.

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