[thelist] JavaScript Disabled ? (WAS [OT] Terrible Websites)

Tue Jul 30 02:24:01 CDT 2002

> Are
> those 5-15% of people who use Netscape 4.x, have JavaScript disabled, or
> simply don't belong to the mainstream "IE user on Windows" group not worth the
> amount of time spent on making the site accessible to them?  Many companies
> seem to be taking the latter approach.

There is one critical group of users who always search with JavaScript disabled.

It's called "The Search Engines".

My favourite idiotic bit of coding is the one where a site's index.html is
simply a JavaScript redirect that points different screen
resolutions/browsers/IP groups to different pages. To a user with JavaScript
turned off (such as a Search Engine) the site is a blank page with no links to
anywhere.

Someone "improved" a site I designed in just such a way. Here is the opening
page code in its entirity, with only the Company Name replaced to protect the
ignorant:

<html>
<head>
<title>Company Name</title>
<script language="javascript">
//tmtC_resolutionRedirect
if (window.screen){
  var w = screen.width;
  tmt_url_640 = "Default_800.htm";
  tmt_url_800 = "Default_800.htm";
  tmt_url_1024 = "Default_1024.htm";
  if(w<740){
    self.location.replace(tmt_url_640);
  }
  if(w>=740 & w<835){
    self.location.replace(tmt_url_800);
  }
  if(w>=835){
    self.location.replace(tmt_url_1024);
  }
}//tmtC_resolutionRedirectEnd
</script>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
</body>

Now, if this page gets submitted to the search engines, what chances of it
getting a good ranking? When all the SE sees is:

<html>
<head>
<title>Company Name</title>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
</body>

(without even a closing </html>..!)

I'd also take issue with the mention of "the amount of time spent on making the
site accessible to [Netscape/non-JavaScript users]". It only takes time if you
start out by designing a non-accessible site with lots of JavaScript and then
have to fix it.

If you *start* with the principle that the site must be accessible, use
client-side scripting only where absolutely necessary, and build up from an HTML
base, then it doesn't take any time at all!

Mike
---------------------------
Mike Hardaker
Founder & Publisher - AngloINFO
http://www.angloinfo.com