vobiblog

I thought it was time for a new look. Comments are now posted automatically thanks to the addition of a Catcha! WTF is a Catcha? Post a comment and find out…

Web sites that don’t adhere to web standards are really starting to give me the shits. Once upon a time this didn’t really matter as you either used Netscape or IE, and as long as the site work in both browsers, it was OK. Now there are a number of new browsers, most recently Safari created by Apple, that are starting to gain acceptance.

As an Opera user for around 2 years now, I have put up with sites not rendering as they should. Most of the time it isn’t a problem but more and more sites are starting to check what browser I use and and when they see that I am using Opera, they tell me that I have to upgrade to the latest version of IE or Netscape. One site even suggested that I should install Microsoft Windows (I run Debian Linux) so that I could view their crappy little web site. Reality Check. I am the customer, make your web sites work or I will buy elsewhere.

Another web site issue is the fact that a lot of sites don’t work as they should. Today I was looking to rent a 2 tonn truck to help my girlfriend move house on the weekend. I looked at websites for the following companies:

• Budget
• Europecar
• Thrifty

Not one of them could even give me a quote without some error appearing or telling me that I really wanted a Mitsubishi Lancer instead of a truck. Full marks to Network Rentals who would have got my booking if they had a truck available on the weekend. Their site is clean, easy to navigate and can provide you with rates without having to fill in page long form detailing what you ate for breakfast on the 4th of May last year.

Lets move on to ‘web sites” created in flash. I was having a debate with my girlfriend the other day about whether web sites created in flash were actually web sites or just a flash movie siting on the web. Flash can be fun. I have seen a number of really funny flash movies and games. I have even seen a demo where it was intergrated into cold fusion and a sql database as a forms type application (Though there is too much missing from it to make it of any use). But what I really hate is the following:

• Sites with a 1mb flash intro without a ’skip intro’ button. I think most people have realised how stupid these are.
• Sites with a 1mb flash intro with the ’skip intro’ button in the flash file, so you have to wait for half the movie to load before you can skip it. Yes, I have seen your flaming, spinning logo 50 times now, I don’t really want to see it again.
• Sites with the navigation system in flash. Surely it can’t be to hard to create a text based site map for those of us who don’t want to use flash.
• Sites that are totally written in flash. Is it really necessary? Do search engines even take notice of sites such as these?

Thats enough of a rant for today :)

peace out