Frames

Frames and browser compatibility

[Adam5000]

Several of my pages (I haven't counted them yet, but say ten) have a lot of the same content on them. Basically words in paragraphs <p>Text here</p>. The first 75% of the page is the same for all ten pages. Just the bottom 25% is different. I'm thinking about using frames on the ten pages for the similar content. But what I'm concerned about is browser compatibility. I want everyone to be able to view the content, but is there a significant browser compatibility problem with frames?

Or does anyone have a better idea?

[bill]

All modern PC browsers are capable of viewing frames. You may have some issues with mobile browsers, but I'm not up to speed on all of them. I know that the one on my phone doesn't like them.

[daveVk]

Is there a good reason to start each page the same, users are likely to leave before finding unique content.

[alt131]

Hi Adam5000,

Like daveVk, I'm wondering about pages with so much similar content. Users usually don't want to waste time seeing the same thing, and search engines are suspicious of duplicated content as well.

However, if you must, try to avoid frames. They are just horrible for accessibility, and for users who try to bookmark a specific page.

An alternative is to store the duplicated material in a separate file and have the server write it into the page before serving it to the user agent using something like php includes. That also gives you the advantage of being able to set expires header so the material is only downloaded once per visit - which makes browsing faster for users as well.