Why is Google so poor on standards?

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Why is Google so poor on standards?

ChanandlerBong

1:13 pm on May 21, 2010 (gmt 0)

Have you ever run their pages through css/html/xhtml validators? Ouch. Their homepage just got flagged for 50 errors by the w3.org validator including gems like still using VALIGN in a table tag and other deprecated tags such as CENTER. CENTER! I haven't used a CENTER tag since about 2002 and I winced while doing it.

I use the FF extension Page Speed and the only thing preventing me getting a 95+ score are the snippets of code from google themselves. If I remove adsense and G analytics, my pages get 96. With them, they get scores in the 84-88 range.

And remember, this is the company that is now going to start penalising US for page speed. Do they penalise for coding validation? They harp on about it so much. Why don't they follow their own play book?

do as I say, not as I do.

Mark_A

10:52 am on May 25, 2010 (gmt 0)

Do no evil !

digitalv

11:29 am on May 25, 2010 (gmt 0)

Someone has to push the standards forward. If people didn't take advantage of browser capabilities that weren't fully sanctioned by w3c we would still be using html 1.0.

As for the use of old tags, how else can you be compatible with old browsers? So often on this forum I see people stress the importance of compatibility with old browsers (I disagree with that idea personally btw) but then when someone does it you complain about a lack of adherence to modern standards?

I guess what I'm really wondering is why do you care whether googles pages validate or not. Its not like they have to worry about search engine ranking. :)

pageoneresults

12:51 pm on May 25, 2010 (gmt 0)

If you take a close look at those 50 errors, which I did a few months back when I wrote an article on why Google doesn't validate, you'll see that they are minor errors, many of which they say have to do with backwards compatibility for all the devices they encounter.

But, don't let that fool you. Google have been slowly making changes and bringing their code up to snuff. At least up to HTML5 snuff...

[Google.com...]

^ That document just went valid this month. I track various docs on the Google TLD for validation and this one landed on me radar after they went green, validated. Nice job Google. Now, how about doing that to your home page so I can finally shut up all the naysayers? ;)