- From: Terry Brainerd Chadwick <tbchad@tbchad.com>
- Date: Mon, 03 Dec 2001 17:20:52 -0800
- To: Jim Thatcher <jim@jimthatcher.com>, w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Jim Thatcher wrote: >I grant that alt text on a "spacer image" is a hack, as is making links >hidden by using same foreground and background colors. This may be offensive >to purists but these hacks work. Making links hidden by using the same foreground and background colors is also a sure way to get your website banned by almost all of the major search engines. A couple of people during this discussion have mentioned this with a question mark, as if it might not be true. There is no question. You might get away with invisible text for a while, but if anyone alerts a search engine to your use of invisible text your site will be deleted and you will be labeled a spammer. Several of the search engines also look for attribute tags with the same, or almost similar, color codes. This causes a lot of problems for designers who aren't trying to spam but create a table where the table background is different than the page background and the table text is the same color as the page background. It doesn't matter if you don't intend to spam. The search engines can't tell the difference, and a competitor won't point out the difference, just the infraction. This may not be a problem if you don't design commercial sites or don't need your site listed on search engines. If you do, don't use it. Terry Terry Brainerd Chadwick, InfoQuest! Information Services mailto:tbchad@tbchad.com http://www.tbchad.com Website Optimization for Accessibility, Content, Search & Usability
Received on Monday, 3 December 2001 20:20:55 UTC