Re: XHTML as XML

Lachlan Hunt wrote:

Well, I can tell you for a fact that google is recieving the XHTML 1.0 
variant of your website as text/html.

-------------------------------


I must admit it, you are right.

The googlebot have an http-accept header so my code forks are working.
It was the W3C HTML validator I was thinking of. 

If we just test for the string "application/xhtml+xml" in the
accept-header, validators and webcrawlers not having an accept-header
will break your code. For that reason it is important first to test if
an http accept-header exists.

Sorry for that.
 
Best regards,
Jesper Tverskov


-----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
Fra: Lachlan Hunt [mailto:lachlan.hunt@iinet.net.au] 
Sendt: 10. februar 2005 14:16
Til: Jesper Tverskov
Cc: www-html@w3.org
Emne: Re: XHTML as XML

Jesper Tverskov wrote:
> 1) First I test if an http accept-header exists. If it does not, as is
> the case of Google, I use XHTML 1.1 and mime-type
application/xhtml+xml
> and I include the xml declaration at the top of the document.

What evidence do you have that google is receiving the document as 
application/xhtml+xml?

Well, I can tell you for a fact that google is recieving the XHTML 1.0 
variant of your website as text/html.  The source code within the Google

cache [1] shows an XHTML 1.0 DOCTYPE with no xml declaration, just below

the junk google inserts at the top of every cached page.

Also, a simple google search for "google support application/xhtml+xml" 
[2] reveals several documents explaining it is not supported.

> It is probably only a matter of time before Google announces or let it
> be known that web pages served as xml get higher ranking. 

Why should google rank pages higher based on the MIME type?  There is no

semantic difference between a document marked up in plain XHTML 1.0 and 
the same document marked up as HTML 4.01, so there can be no assumption 
of an XHTML document being somehow inherently better than HTML.

[1]
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:lEyprWLNgFIJ:www.smackthemouse.com/
[2]
http://www.google.com/search?q=google+support+application%2Fxhtml%2Bxml

-- 
Lachlan Hunt
http://lachy.id.au/
http://GetFirefox.com/    Rediscover the Web
http://SpreadFirefox.com/   Igniting the Web

Received on Thursday, 10 February 2005 13:41:54 UTC