pageoneresults - 7:46 pm on Jan 22, 2009 (gmt 0)

Woohoo! Get ready to rumble...

Does the CENTER tag give an error when you validate?

Ya, it will. That element has been deprecated for quite some time.

15.1.2 Alignment
[w3.org...]

The CENTER element is exactly equivalent to specifying the DIV element with the align attribute set to "center". The CENTER element is deprecated.

If so, then to hell with validation. It's not a mistake, it's a choice.

Heh! It's that type of thinking that has gotten us to where we are today.

In a recent survey, less than 5% of sites were in any way standards compliant.

Survey? Did they scan the entire Internet and then crunch the numbers from there? Or was this a select group, not unlike yourself, who participated in the survey? ;)

To borrow a phrase from the study of law - there are two standards at work here. One is the "common standard" which is the way web pages are actually written by real people in the real world. The other one is the "legislated standard" of the W3C.

It is actually the other way around. Browsers are developed around the standards. And then the developers have to take into consideration all the things that are non-standard. It is a real pain in the arse, I know, I've spent the last few years building a tool that emulates the browser and bot. Freakin' HTML errors are a time suck in providing accommodations. :)

How many Google pages validate? I would guess nearly none.

Not a valid argument. It pains me to see the largest Internet brand not take this validation thing seriously. That doesn't mean you or I don't have too.

When you buy a book, has the typesetting been "validated"?

Of course it has. Do you know the process involved before that book goes to press? Man, that thing has been "validated" by numerous people. And if it hasn't, you're going to end up with poor grammar, typos, etc.

And last but not least, let me address this comment sir...

At any site I see those little W3C badges proclaiming that the page is valid, I'm really turned off by it. Juvenile, if you ask me.

That would happen to be every site under my control. Juvenile? Oh boy! I'm going to chalk that comment up to jealousy. I hear it all the time. It usually comes from those who can't get their pages to validate no matter what they do. Don't worry though, I'm here to help. :)