The Pixel Experience

So although it seems like only a couple of months ago that Microsoft released IE7, it seems that IE8 has been slated to hit the tubes sometime around April ‘08.  Now normally that wouldn’t get me going, but the rumors are, that it could be pretty good at fulfilling web standards.  Now that really excites me! No more writing confusing CSS hacks, write for one browser, works for all, etc…

Don’t get me wrong, this is great news, but it’ll still take a couple of years before the websites we design don’t need to be compatible with IE6/7, but hey - at least it’s something to look forward to!

The one thing in the linked article that does concern me comes from here:

We must deliver improved standards support and backwards compatibility so that IE8 (1) continues to work with the billions of pages on the web today that already work in IE6 and IE7 and (2) makes the development of the next billion pages, in an interoperable way, much easier. We’ll blog more, and learn more, about this during the IE8 beta cycle.

So basically, they admit that they broke the web.  But this raises a bigger question: ‘Can they really build a new browser that supports both websites hacked for IE6/7 and web standards…?’

Many web designers have long shunned the application of CSS within email, and I’m part of that crowd.

Like websites, email is one of those technologies for which the output must be predictable for the designer whatever software the user chooses to read it on. However, unlike web pages this is harder to implement. The differences in the way that the different browsers on the market implement CSS is definitely decreasing, even if Microsoft are still struggling to get their act together. On the other hand, the different email browsers have historically had a very limited success rate at implimenting HTML/CSS, and I’ve heard no evidence to say that this is improving.

Jeffrey Zeldman (another critic of HTML email) recently wrote about the Email Standards Project, an effort to try and get programmers of email software all pointed in the right direction. Now I’ve only had a brief look at the project’s website, but a couple of things concern me already. Firstly, the home page has a running list of how the more popular email clients perfom, and I question the accuracy of this list. Now as I’ve already said I don’t use HTML when composing an email, so I thought I’d give it a go. I use Apple Mail, and after using Leopard for about a month now, I thought I’d try out the Apple designed stationary. So if anything should work this should, Apple Mail is listed by the ESP as having an excellent performance, and I’m using Apple stationary that comes with that email client, and here are the results.

Hmmmm….

Secondly, until one or two big name email clients sign up to the ESP, this could all be a lot of hot air.

I really want this project to work, but don’t really have a place to start! Can I really trust the ESP when they give a grade of Excellent to software that can’t even perform with it’s own designs?!

Oh dear, I’ve written yet another negative post. I really don’t want this blog to be full of rants written by a grumpy developer, so I’ll try and find something more positive for next time!

What is Web 2.0

For those of you who are not familiar with the term ‘Web 2.0′, or aren’t too sure what it means, don’t worry your are not alone. Since the term first became popular amongst technologists and developers, there has been little agreement on the exact details that make up ‘Web 2.0′. I personally prefer the very broad definition laid out on by Wikipedia:

Web 2.0 refers to a perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosted services — such as social-networking sites, wikis and folksonomies — which aim to facilitate collaboration and sharing between users.

So essentially we’re looking at websites like flickr, digg, wikipedia and facebook. All great sites, most of which I use on a daily basis. When I use these websites I am constantly in communication with many other users with similar interests, which is great, but can become a little overwhelming sometimes.

The problems with Web 2.0

Currently these websites are very popular, and are often bought out from their owners by huge companies for large sums, but I think that things have to change soon - the bubble has to burst.

The problem is that the more sites that you join, the more information you become bombarded with, and the more time you need to deal with it. Not only that, but sites you already belong to are evolving to add more ’stuff’ than they had before.

Take Facebook, a great social-networking site with the aim of staying in touch with friends, and that aim is what drew me to the site. But I could already do that, using email, skype, online games, and the pub. So what really convinced me to need to use Facebook? Well, nearly all of my friends were already using it, and by joining I was able to get in touch with friends I hadn’t spoken to before. So it is a sort of Web 2.0 version of friendsreunited.com. However, as I’ve slowly increased the number friends listed on my account, so the shear amount of online spam has increased (let’s call this ‘Spam 2.0′), and although my friends have generated it, it has actually become a barrier between me and them. The amount of online time I have to interact with them in any meaningful way is now limited and the thought of logging in to check up on my friends has become a burden.

Facebook isn’t alone, MySpace, has also become quite bloated and appears to require quite a bit of dedication to keep going.

My predictions

So interaction is good, but so long as it does what it says on the tin, and not much more. I think that these ‘bloating’ trends need to happen and hope that users will vote with their feet. Hopefully, developers will start to streamline their websites and focus on what they are rather than what else they can become.

Of course, users probably won’t vote with their feet, and are generally happy with the way these websites are evolving, but I urge all developers involved with these websites to continually consider the amount of information users have to consume!