Standards Archive

Does Google Hate Web Standards?

Posted on June 15, 2008 in Standards, Websites by Jeff Starr

Consider the Google home page — arguably the most popular, highly visited web page in the entire world. Such a simple page, right? You would think that such a simple design would fully embrace Web Standards. I mean, think about it for a moment.. How would you or I throw down a few lists, a search field, and a logo image? Something like this, maybe:

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Content Negotiation for XHTML Documents via PHP and htaccess

Posted on March 26, 2008 in Function, Standards by Jeff Starr

[ ~:{*}:~ ] In this article, I discuss the different MIME types available for XHTML and explain a method for serving your documents with the optimal MIME type, depending on the capacity of the user agent. Using either htaccess or PHP for content negotiation, we can serve complete, standards-compliant markup for our document’s header information. This is especially helpful when dealing with Internet Explorer while serving a DOCTYPE of XHTML 1.1 along with the recommended XML declaration.

According to the RFC standards 1 produced by IETF 2, web documents formatted as XHTML 3 may be served as any of the following three MIME types:

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Standards-Compliance Throwdown: MS-IE5/6 DNS/404 Error-Page Redesign

Posted on May 1, 2007 in Presentation, Standards by Jeff Starr

Screenshot: default IE 404 error page
Default DNS Error page for Internet Explorer

First of all, congratulations if you are geeky enough to understand the title of this article. Many would be like, "CSS, MS.. IE, error ..what..?" Whatever. If you get the title, you will get the point of this utterly pointless exercise. If that is the case, prepare for a delightful romp through geekland. Otherwise, save your precious time and stop reading here (exit strategy).

Well, okay, for the seriously unenlightened, let us explain the object of our present focus:

The default "DNS Error" page for Internet Explorer unfortunately remains a familiar sight for millions of Microsoft users. Typically, the default MS DNS Error page loads whenever a browser is unable to connect to the internet or other networked resource. Once loaded, the error page announces itself with a message that reads "The page cannot be displayed." The page then presents several options: refresh browser, retype address, check connection, check configuration, etc.     — Monzilla Media (i.e., me)

Still interested? Well, okay. Actually, it’s no big deal. Just a nice, standards-compliant, CSS-based redesign of that old, nappy Internet Explorer 404 Error page. You know the one. Whenever you can’t connect to the internet, it jumps up at you, sticks out it’s tongue and mocks you. Yes, we hate it, too. But alas, with the release of Internet Explorer 7 comes a ‘brand new’ 404 error page. Surely, it’s just a matter of time before that dumpy old 404 error page circa IE5/6 disappears forever. So, before that tragedy unfolds..

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W3C Validation Services

Posted on October 16, 2006 in Accessibility, Standards by Jeff Starr

Here are the validation services currently provided by the W3C 1:

References