Pushing the Standard

This site makes plenty of references to ‘web standards’ and ‘standards compliance’ so it makes good sense to offer this quick introduction to what they are all about.

The Why

During the early days of the web we had the ‘browser wars’. Fighting for market dominance, the early web browsers used browser-specific features and code in an attempt to 'out-cool' the competition.

This left us with seriously difficult-to-maintain spaghetti code behind the scenes and ridiculous ‘best viewed in…’ messages on the screen. The freshness of the technologies being introduced also meant that methods of working were yet to mature.

The Fix

What was needed was a common way to build things up at the front end of the web. That’s where The Web Standards Project comes in. Their own site says exactly what they do best:

“The Web Standards Project is a grassroots coalition fighting for standards which ensure simple, affordable access to web technologies for all.”

The Now

There is still a buzz around web standards because it is only in the last few years that web browsers have finally started to get things working more or less in line with the W3C guidelines. Most other industries and technologies simply accept ‘standards’ as the norm and whilst acceptance of web standards is now widespread, implimentation is still a little rocky in places. This is why developers like myself still work hard to make the case for common methods and techniques, it makes sense for developers and makes sense for our client's websites.

The Benefits

There are some very real benefits for site owners of sites that follow standards techniques. Here are the most widely recognised benefits:

• Accessibilty – greater visibility to the broadest audience and technologies.
• Stability – the standards are carefully bolted together to provide future and backward compatibility.
• Portability – sites can easily function in different visual ways across different media devices.
• Scalability – Easier to maintain, scalable and easier to redesign in the future.
• Lower Cost – No need for costly, wasteful development trying to get the same thing working in a number of different ways.
• Search – search engines are generally embracing web standards techniques because the code is cleaner and better structured. That makes sites easier to crawl.