W3C members don't meet their own standards

Daily Newsletters

Topics

NEWS

In a test of whether members of the Web's premier standards group are willing to eat their own dog food, companies and organizations from Microsoft to the United States Environmental Protection Agency were found to be picky eaters. The second biannual survey, conducted by Web designer Marko Karppinen, showed that only 21, or 4.6 percent, of 454 member sites Karppinen could access passed the W3C's own HTML validator, which tests for grammatically correct HTML. The results showed marginal improvement from Karppinen's first survey six months ago, when 3.7 percent of surveyed member sites were shown to have used valid HTML. Improved or not, Karppinen called the results a stinging indictment of the members' commitment to Web standards. "The W3C's mission is not only to come up with these standards but also to promote them," Karppinen wrote in an email interview. "The world needs to use them if there is to be any benefit. And it's quite reasonable to assume that this work would start with their own membership. If it has, the results are pretty sad." Both Karppinen and companies whose sites failed the W3C's validation offered the same reason for the low rate of compliance with published recommendations: Web designers are more concerned with what works with real-world browsers than with standard blueprints. "Although we fully support the work and the mission of the W3C, our goal is not to evangelise W3C standards, but to work closely with Web developers to help their sites work effectively in a cross-browser world," a Netscape representative said. "Netscape.com, along with other highly trafficked sites, needs to ensure that content will be able render properly across a wide variety of browsers, both old and new." The reality of the real-world design ethos expressed by Netscape, however, has tended to work against it and other Microsoft competitors, because the browser Web authors design against is Microsoft's Internet Explorer. In many cases, this means that sites are now resorting to the once-common practice of prescribing what browser works best with the site, creating virtual IE-only zones on the Web. The W3C could not be reached for comment. Microsoft and other member sites declined to comment. One influential W3C participant, while declining to speak for the consortium, called Netscape's rationalization short-sighted and hazardous for companies that use it. "I totally agree that it's pretty sad that relatively few of the W3C membership have seen the business benefits of going with standards-compliance," said Tim Bray, chief technology officer and founder of Antarctica Systems and a member of the W3C's 9-month-old Technical Architecture Group. "The time is coming very fast when a substantial proportion of Web users are not coming through Microsoft IE; this includes all the wireless-PDA combo phone devices out there, not to mention the AOL customers who will be using Gecko-based browsers." One W3C member that did pass the validation test called the overall results disappointing but pointed out a silver lining on the cloud of nonconformance. "The good news is that people are still using HTML," said Hakon Lie, chief technology officer at Opera Software. "Not in exactly the right way, but it could have been much worse if people had started using some proprietary language like (Adobe Systems') PDF."

For everything Internet-related, from the latest legal and policy-related news, to domain name updates, see ZDNet UK's Internet News Section. Have your say instantly, and see what others have said. Go to the ZDNet news forum. Let the editors know what you think in the Mailroom.

Post your comment

In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in.

You can also log in with Facebook. Log in or create your ZDNet UK account below

By signing up for this service, you indicate that you agree to our Terms and Conditions and have read and understood our Privacy Policy. Questions about membership? Find the answers in the Community FAQ

ZDNet UK Live

How dare film makers, artists or anybody that invests in creativity stop us pirating their works for free. I want to be able to walk into my local...

1 hour ago by JCB33 on ACTA stumbles in Germany

@GrueMaster. I prefer horses for courses rather than one size fits all. I, and I suspect most other computer users, do not really wish to have...

3 hours ago by Moley on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

The product that scares me every time I have to use it is the Office 2007 version of Excel. The first bug that I found was applying the median...

3 hours ago by greycynic on Ten flawed products that derail productivity

Nice review and very informative. One thing I'd like to add (in reply to whs001's 1st question), the main reason to have the same interface from...

5 hours ago by GrueMaster on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

I'be been using Mint 12 since the RC came out, and I am far more happy with the Cinnamon, the Mate, and, yes (with extensions), theGnome 3...

6 hours ago by Frederick Wrigley via Facebook on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Excellent article. One small correction, though--although a fresh installation of Linux Mint 12 will, indeed, provide the user with a version of...

6 hours ago by bdantas on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

In related news, the ISPs club together to get the members of the Home Affairs Select Committee (ya goofed on that part, ZDNet UK) copies of "The...

7 hours ago by Alan Ralph via Facebook on MPs urge ISPs to take down terrorist material

In related news, the ISPs club together to get the members of the Home Affairs Select Committee (ya goofed on that part, ZDNet UK) copies of "The...

7 hours ago by Alan Ralph via Facebook on MPs urge ISPs to take down terrorist material

For Gnome 2 die-hards, it is possible to add icons to the bottom panel (or top top panel, if you prefer) which provide the exact Gnome 2...

8 hours ago by Moley on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Your comments would seem pretty naive and immature. Your 'solution' appears to be, "gee, let's all just give in to the hackers and give them...

8 hours ago by ramwellian on Cloud computing security: no more oxymoron?

"Interesting thought ... If you installed Win7 as a dual boot on a machine that previously only had Linux, and it wrecked your Linux installation,...

8 hours ago by BugStalker on Windows 7 Declares War on GRUB

This is an excellent summary of Ubuntu and Mint and the interface differences between them. Most such articles take a very partisan position for...

8 hours ago by whs001 on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

@ewallace. Not so clear. Anyone can obtain the text, for example from here http://www.ustr.gov/webfm_send/2379. I support ACTA so long as it and...

8 hours ago by Moley on ACTA: Facts, misconceptions and questions

I think WinRT is fantastic. I just wish it was an option for people that didn't want to go through Microsoft's App Store with its attendant...

12 hours ago by 45283 on Why Windows 8 needs architectural hygiene for WOA

Nine people? £30m? Who's back pocket is that lot going in? And IF they say it is for new buildings, what about all the ones the government has...

13 hours ago by Burn-IT on Police set to launch three £30m e-crime hubs

Just to be clear, nobody knows what is in the text of ACTA, here is a photograph of the text of ACTA http://twitpic.com/8h9iju as submitted to the...

13 hours ago by ewallace on ACTA: Facts, misconceptions and questions

Unfortunately main issue is that ASUS is refusing to accept that they make some mistake on this version of asus Transformer prime. 1 - GPS sensor...

14 hours ago by fgvrg56 on Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime Wi-Fi & GPS problems?

@Marcus A fair question. Just talked with Archos which said it was working on an announcement for next week....

15 hours ago by Ben Woods on Archos confirms G9 Ice Cream Sandwich update schedule

Any update on this, considering the claimed "first week of February"?

16 hours ago by Marcus Karlsson via Facebook on Archos confirms G9 Ice Cream Sandwich update schedule

Bill Goodrich : Just as al_langevin pointed out, with Windows Server 2008 there is no Services for Macintosh anymore. It's gone, not available....

1 day ago by apexwm on Windows Server 2008 drops the ball for Mac compatibility

Featured white papers

Latest jobs

W3C members don't meet their own standards

Daily Newsletters

Topics

Related stories

Web standards group outlines core principles

Web groups tackle standards confusion

Ofcom to make it easier to change broadband service

Google set to build backbone of its 1Gbps fibre network

Nicira reveals network virtualisation details

Post your comment

ZDNet UK Live

Latest in Networking

Ofcom to make it easier to change broadband service

Google set to build backbone of its 1Gbps fibre network

Nicira reveals network virtualisation details

Featured white papers

Latest jobs

Test Analyst - Business Intelligence /Data Warehousing

Test Analyst - Business Intelligence /Data Warehousing

Technical MI Manager - 50-60k - Leeds

Inside ZDNet UK

A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

2012 Predictions: VCE FastPath, VI SAN Probe & Hadoop

BlackBerry Bold 9790

Case study: How cloud enables growth

Ten factors that make Ubuntu 11.10 a hit

Toshiba Portégé Z830-10P Review

BT's archive: Pictures from the vault

News & Analysis

Reviews

Blogs

Resources

About Us

Member Services

Special Features

Advertising Features

ZDNet UK / News and Analysis / Infrastructure / Networking

W3C members don't meet their own standards

Daily Newsletters

Topics

Related stories

Post your comment

Get ZDNet UK's daily newsletter

Enter your email address to sign up

ZDNet UK Live

Latest in Networking

Featured white papers

Latest jobs

Inside ZDNet UK

Resources

About Us

Member Services

Special Features

Advertising Features