Microsoft.com Abandons CSS-based Layout
Am I late to this game?
I’m not sure how long this refresh of the Microsoft homepage (screenshot) has been live, but I just noticed it. The design is an improvement over the previous iteration, but take a look under the hood — table tags galore, not to mention IE proprietary filters.
It wasn’t long ago, I believe, that they made the jump to a CSS-based layout. You would think that with the upcoming release of a more standards-compliant browser that they would continue to embrace the power of CSS. I wonder what’s the reasoning for the step back.
Reader Comments
7 Responses to “Microsoft.com Abandons CSS-based Layout”
Carlos Eduardo July 28th, 2006
It’s soo bad… I thought that Microsoft has changed their minds about Web Standards, but I think I was wrong =/
StartFusion Design July 28th, 2006
Take a look at:
http://preview.microsoft.com/en/us/default.aspx
However, be sure to do it in IE6 or IE7 Beta3, as it won’t display in FireFox. Viewing the source of this new layout shows the new layout is, in fact, CSS-centric. However, I have not had the time to go through every line of code to verify “standards compliant” coding.
Jordan Ambra July 28th, 2006
ASP.NET has an option for client targeting, which writes out different output, depending on the browser accessing the page. For whatever reason, it considers Opera, FF, and others a “downlevel” browser and feeds it tables, while IE gets the divs. Ironic, I know.
I always disable it on my sites, but it looks like that’s the way they’re developing.
reh3 July 29th, 2006
Well the preview is that of a beta version for the homepage. If you just vist the microsoft.com in IE you are still served with the same table-based layout that’s seen in FF.
Seth August 1st, 2006
Hey! There is a toolbar for IE that is much like the Web Developer toolbar for Firefox, it is pretty helpful. Here is the link.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e59c3964-672d-4511-bb3e-2d5e1db91038&displaylang=en
Ranjith August 20th, 2006
Yup….this is bad that such a reputed software giant who is expected to lead by example is using an outdated technology. Or is it that MS is not bothered about the CSS based revolution??
lr August 23rd, 2006
I’m betting they stepped back because they got frustrated trying to make the site work in IE. ;)