- From: Brian Kelly <b.kelly@ukoln.ac.uk>
- Date: Fri, 3 Aug 2001 12:15:11 -0000
- To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
- Cc: chitchcock@cast.org
I am currently carrying out a benchmarking survey of a selection of Web sites. The survey will look at measures such as the size of entry points, quality of HTML, WAI compliance, etc. I will be using Web-based tools, so that the method can be seen by all. I'll also be using freely-available Web services, so anyone can try the survey for themselves. A couple of comments on my experiences so far: It would be helpful if the Web services allowed summary information to be provided. The output from Bobby, for example, is intended for reading and is wordy. In other services, e.g. NetMechanic limitations of the survey (e.g. page size not measured fully due to service respecting the Robot Exclusion Protocol and not analysing images) is hidden away. When comparing the file sizes using Bobby and NetMechanic I sometimes get very different results. This is due to a number of factors: e.g. some services only analyse the sizes of images and HTML files and do not include external JavaScript files, CSS files, etc.; some services respect the Robot Exclusion Protocol, while others don't and services will treat frames pages, splash screens, and other content-negotiated files differently (e.g. some report a very small entry point - which can be due to analysing a redirect string or a page saying "Your browser doesn't support frames"). Has anyone provided standard definitions for what constitutes a page, and what action user-agent should take when such strange things happen? Are any auditing tools providing customisation over the actions they will take? Finally are any of the Web sites which provide such Web analysis features looking at going down the "Web service" route, and providing output in a machine understandable format - so that the results can be more easily post-processed? Thanks Brian PS I've been off this list for a while. On re-subscribing I notice the Welcome message refers to the WWW FAQ maintained by Thomas Boutell which no longer exists. I suspect several W3C mailing lists will include this reference. I think this message should be updated. --------------------------------------- Brian Kelly UK Web Focus UKOLN University of Bath BATH BA2 7AY Email: B.Kelly@ukoln.ac.uk Web: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ Phone: 01225 323943
Received on Friday, 3 August 2001 07:17:23 UTC