Question of the Year?

[Brett_Tabke]

Last year we posed the question in the forum description, Is CSS ready for prime time?. We never came to a definitive answer, and have still been living with the question as we build our sites and make choices.

It's time for a new question. What do you think is the foremost question this year with regard to site code and site building for you as a site developer?

(edited by: Brett_Tabke at 11:04 pm (utc) on Jan. 15, 2002)

[Marshall]

Accessibility!

By the way Brett, did you check out the CSS vs Table layout thread?

[Eric_Jarvis]

get ready for the attack of the killer mobiles...and prepare for the text to speech explosion...those are the things at the top of my panic list

now that WAP has pretty much become a side issue the mobile phone companies are looking at real web browsing in your pocket...it's already big in Japan...it is going to hit the rest of the world real soon now

so the question is...how will your sites look on a pocket sized browser?

next years question will be...talking to the web, are my sites answering back?

the technology is there...it just needs to be marketed...we've all seen it on Star Trek...now it is possible to have a hand held device that you can ask questions to and get...

"...sorry your browser does not support frames, please download the latest version of Bloatware Exploder..."

[idiotgirl]

Yup - I think it's about accessibility and handhelds. My access logs show a minute percentage of people accessing with handhelds. God only knows what they see. It's a 911 on my list.

[tedster]

Funny thing -- we just got a contract because our site looked good in a handheld so the prospect decided we must be on the ball. A total accident! but I'll take it. Haven't touched that site code in ages, like a barber who never gets a haircut.

Accessibility IS css plus valid xhtml, as far as I can see. It's one of the reasons I followed some of the recent threads here so closely. There are some challenging hurdles between right now and the near future, and many of them come from css.

[papabaer]

Hello Everyone!

Accessibility.

My choice is to follow valid XHTML & CSS ... it never hurts to get ahead of the learning curve and have compatible sites now.

Lookin' in the rear-view mirror and she's coming up fast....

[IanKelley]

I don't think there is going to be only one question of the year this year... You'd be better off with the question of the bianum or even the month :-) I'm expecting lots of changes this year.

Here's one to start... Is DHTML ready for prime time? i.e. Does the combination of Microsofts attempts to kill Javascript and users turning it off in other browers make relying on script based design a bad idea?

[feeder]

The end of Flash?

- Many sites reverting to simple designs
- Increasing Flash virus attacks
- Low-fi mobile client drags web design back to internet circa 1995

[bill]

I think this whole wireless web hype is just that..hype. I've been surfing the web on my cell phone for a couple of years now in Japan, and I have to tell you the web at large simply doesn't scale to the phone very well. The most successful sites for these smaller size portables are ones specifically designed for that medium.

The most popular sites on the Japanese pocket web, after ring tones and screensaver downloads, are proprietary Java applets that only work with specific phones. The cHTML pages are still out there but it's still tedious to type in URLs or even to use search engines. 80-90% of traffic goes to links on the service provider's default directory and few people ever venture outside that "walled garden"...shades of AOL?

[prowsej]

AvantGo got it right with regards to displaying the web on small devices: you need to create separate versions of every page. People can read a lot more data more quickly on a desktop. I want my portable pages to be shorter.

[rcjordan]

Security? What security? In 2001, we tasted the ill effects of massive security problems and inadequacies. I read a headline somewhere that said that attacks/viruses are forecast to double this year. Security isn't ready for prime time, but prime time is here.

[PageCount]

"...sorry your browser does not support frames, please download the latest version of Bloatware Exploder..."

Spot on, Eric :). Bill's experience of wireless seems pretty widespread but, as a question, it'll probably take up as much bandwidth as it has done in the past.

I go with RC above, i.e. "Security? What Security?" but I would also add, "Whose Security?"

[Slud]

Netscape 4.x finally dies, and there is much rejoicing.

[rcjordan]

>security

See, Bill reads here. Gates memo: "We can and must do better" [news.cnet.com]

[nowhere]

I'm wondering whether or not the .Net platform caches on.

[nowhere]

Then again, I didn't realize the category was "browsers" since I clicked from the first page.

[feeder]

Off-topic but...I love this bit of Gates press release:

"highest priority for Microsoft....ways we could make the Internet truly useful for people"

Oh really? I think I could name a million ways MS has made it less useful.

Back on topic....yep - security gets my vote.

[Sushy]

I reckon XML is the word for this year.... Accesibility has reached the masses ... hopefully Flash is slowly being used properly .. I think taking all ne technology on board is important but people all too easily get obsessed by it. Usable interfaces good design and useful content should be the aim for this year.... ( and spelling lessons for myself :) )

[bmac2560]

I think the big issue this year will be the continuing trend toward decentralizing the web. I don't know if the answer will be peer to peer, but the trend seems to be making
the client more powerful. I think Bill Gates recognizes this in this new emphasis on "trustworthy computing"