abbeyvet - 9:18 pm on May 3, 2007 (gmt 0)

I am sure that within 6 months they'd all be standard compliant.

What world do you live in? What internet do you browse? :)

I am certain they wouldn't.

Gazillions of sites and pages are out there which are old, unedited for years. But very, very good. The original creators have often moved on to other things and possibly don't even have access to the pages anymore in some cases. Who on earth is going to go back and redo them all?

Gazillions of sites and pages are out there that have value as information and are created by people who not only don't know or care about standards, they have never heard of them, they are blissfully unaware that they exist. It won't matter what software providers do, they will carry on using the software they bought in 1999.

And anyway, what standards? I can make a site that validates perfectly but is a total disaster from a useability viewpoint, or equally one that is highly rated for useability but doesn't necessarily validate. How do you assess useability in an algoritm? Would one standard be better than another? Why? In what situation? It's a minefield.

ok maybe for universities, but for businesses or ecommerce sites..

Which would give business and ecommerce sites an advantage in Google over information/educational sites. This would not necessarily serve Google's users well.

It's just a non-runner. Theoretically it is a nice idea, I agree, but in practice it rewards those with money and resources, not necessarily those with knowledge.