Google Code: Web Authoring Statistics

A survey from Google about Web Authoring Techniques.

[[[
Introduction

Various people have, over the last few years, done studies into the  
popularity of authoring techniques. For example, looking at what HTML  
ids and classes are most common, and at how many sites validate (and  
yes, we know that we're not leading the way in terms of validation).
]]]

-- Google Code: Web Authoring Statistics
http://code.google.com/webstats/index.html
Wed, 01 Feb 2006 07:19:35 GMT


Ed Dumbill seems to have worries

[[[
That said, I'm quite disappointed with the ways these results have  
been presented.

Firstly, the report as published has no author attribution. From the  
writing and other sources, I am given to understand it's Ian Hickson,  
the prime proponent behind WHATWG, but nowhere is this made plain. A  
date of publication would also be useful on the document.

Secondly, the graphs are given as SVG, which is laudable, but leaves  
those using IE or pre-1.5 Firefox browsers out in the cold. There's  
nothing in the data that means they couldn't be presented as PNG  
images. This is simply making a statement about browsers.

Thirdly, the report mixes political viewpoints about the HTML  
standard in with observations about the data. The report references  
WHATWG's HTML5 in various places without setting it in the context of  
the various ways forward. Hickson's views over XHTML 1.0 and the text/ 
html media type were presented without recognition of it at least  
being a contentious issue, rather than a matter of fact. If  
authorship were attributed, this bias could be contextualised  
somewhat, but as it is it can only be construed as Google's  
endorsement of a particular viewpoint.
]]]

-- Google web authoring stats: less spin please
http://times.usefulinc.com/2006/01/26-google-stats
Wed, 01 Feb 2006 07:21:31 GMT


Maybe is it because Ian Hickson is an employee of Google Inc.

[[[
On the work side, last week this Web log ended up being mentioned on  
hundreds of Web tech-heads' sites, as they amused themselves reading  
my frustrated parser reverse-engineering. Then around midweek I ended  
up being Slashdotted because of some research[1] I did that Google  
published. I love that Google let me do this research. I've been  
hoping to study authoring practices for years.
]]]

-- Hixie's Natural Log
http://ln.hixie.ch/
Wed, 01 Feb 2006 07:23:19 GMT


[1] http://code.google.com/webstats/index.html



-- 
Karl Dubost - http://www.w3.org/People/karl/
W3C Conformance Manager, QA Activity Lead
   QA Weblog - http://www.w3.org/QA/
      *** Be Strict To Be Cool ***

Received on Wednesday, 1 February 2006 07:25:07 UTC