rocknbil - 6:05 pm on Jun 17, 2010 (gmt 0)

Well . . the appropriate alt text is

alt="spacer image"

or something like it, which nullifies the possibility of penalties for "spacer abuse." That technique is not dead, BTW, saw it on a client site just yesterday in a bit of tracking code from an SEO company. Sometimes you just have to nod and keep quiet . . .