W3C Recomendations

I have always been aware of W3C standards... Never have I been "fully" compliant.

But then Again... I went to many popular websites to see who is...

www.espn.com - nope
www.cnn.com - nope
www.microsoft.com - nope(suprisingly)
www.google.com - nope

www.msn.com - YES(finally, I found one.)

If these sites are not compliant... what responsibility does that put on smaller companies?

I am a flash developer... fortunately, Flash CS3 publishes a compliant way to display .swf files. The content I create does not even fall into the same category because I do not develop X/HTML/CSS. I have every intent of making the content I create available to everyone. Where do I stand? In another view... If someone asks me to create a W3C compliant flash site... This does not mean that it will be accessible to everyone. (defeating the point)


There is much discussion about whether corporations are driving the W3C or are they really trying to conform to standard? From the list above... It does not seem that they are conforming. I believe that companies need to stop being so territorial and begin working together. The more browsers and versions being used are only getting us farther from being united. And it is making the job tougher for those who wish to create content. And I WILL REITERATE I would like to make content which is accessible to everyone. I believe in the freedom to choose from multiple browsers... why can't there be a consortium to make these "deep-pocket" companies conform to how information is displayed. Wouldn't it be smarter to have 5-10 companies conform to a standard which can be used by everyone, rather than having thousands of smaller companies trying to conform to an ever-evolving battle between the creators of the browsers.

If nobody is living up to the standard... is it really the standard?
(even if the standard is really only a "recommendation")