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ajdevies
Posts: 117
Joined: 6/19/2002
From: Holly Hill, FL
Status: offline
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RE: Websites alienate Firefox users - 6/24/2005 13:35:35
Bank of America absolutely, positively, never ever ever will use any browser other than IE for their on-line banking services. This is an (almost) direct quote from their customer service department in response to my inquiry about "alternate" browsers, replete with stats on declining IE usage.
When corporate America digs in its heels, theres no changing their minds - even when logic and statistics are handed to them for free.
Count me as one reluctant but #($&%^ off BoA customer.
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AJ
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womble
Posts: 6289
Joined: 3/14/2005
From: Living on the edge
Status: offline
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RE: Websites alienate Firefox users - 6/24/2005 14:18:16
Interesting...just out of interest I tried validating some of the sites mentioned in the article on the W3C's validator, and guess what? (Tailslide's (perfectly justified) obsession with doctypes is obviously catching - she's got me at it now!):
Jobcentreplus.co.uk - does validate, but I have to say their new look site's colour scheme is absolutely attrocious!
odeon.co.uk - NO DOCTYPE and 15 errors!
insurance.co.uk - couldn't validate, no character encoding...
British American Tobacco - 450 errors!!!!!
Flybmi.com/cargo - 19 errors
bssuk.co.uk - no doctype and 85 errors!
Maybe because they can't be bothered to ensure their sites are standards compliant (surely something companies of that size can do?) they also can't be bothered to support their customers and potential customers who can't use their sites in part because of their dodgy coding and lack of foresight to ensure accessibility - their loss (and with the case of accessibility a potentially costly loss if someone gets them under the DDA or other countries' equiavalents). Hasn't anybody ever told them the customer's always right?
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~~ "A cruel god ain't no god at all" ~~
~~ Erase hate. Practice love. ~~
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Mojo
Posts: 2477
From: Chicago
Status: offline
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RE: Websites alienate Firefox users - 6/24/2005 14:27:47
Often, there is a very solid reason to NOT validate. One of the tell-tail signs of an overly optimized site is that everything is perfect. When, in reality, most site don't validate.
Few of my many sites validate (not due to a of lack of ability). In fact, I often put a link to the w3.org validator *knowing* that the site will fail. I know that may offend some of you who are trying to make the world a better place - I'm just trying to make money.
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Mojo
Posts: 2477
From: Chicago
Status: offline
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RE: Websites alienate Firefox users - 6/24/2005 14:56:06
quote:
Do you mean that Google etc frowns upon a site using valid code?
No. Just an observation. If I were Google I would flag all sites that validate and compete for any keyword that sells for above a certain price point. Then, I would come back later to run different algos against the flagged sites.
One thing I have noticed - many webmasters that have their personal income tied to the performance of a site seem to validate in greater numbers. Most of these same webmasters spam the search engines in one form or another.
As an example of exposing oneself - I wouldn't touch the new sitemaps program Google is offering. Who is using this feature? It would seem the only people who are really aware of it are those webmasters that take site promotion seriously. These are exactly the kind of people Google wants to know about.
quote:
Keyword spamming is bad, frames are bad, using valid code can surely never be a bad thing.
I have to bit my lip a bit at that...
Anyhow, concerning the valid code bit - Remember the Florida update?
Legions of sites that followed the Google guidelines were nuked in a fortnight. It was like a biblical massacre. All you could read on forum after forum was how sites that followed the Google mantra and never broke a rule (some call them white hat sites) were shot out of the SERPs.
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Split Testing
GPS Vehicle Tracking
Chicago Marketing
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