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To say that the internet has revolutionized the accessibility of information is a gross understatement. The web has very quickly become one of the most important and widely used socio-technological advancements well, ever. As the number of stuff on the web increases, the variety of stuff on the internet also increases. More pertinent here is that the number of junk or noise on the web also increases. Utilizing web standards is a way to optimize the so called stuff on the web to be more than noise but rather, a melody.
Why do web standards matter? It can feel like the advocacy of web standards support the suppression of individuality while pushing for a conglomerate of conformity. Certain groups such as the Web Standards Project definitely don’t hold this view. Uniformity can be good! No, I am not saying you need to be a member of the communist party or anything. Rather, consider how web standards can increase your web site’s usability, accessibility, and all around function-ability (pushing for that 3rd –ability there).
Just having information on the web is not enough. Somehow, that information needs to do something; to inform perhaps. The Web Standards Project describes Tim Berners-Lee’s dream for his invention, the World Wide Web, as “a common space where users can share information to work together, to play, and to socialize.” In this dream we see information doing something, being accessible and useful. Web standards allow for web designers to address several constraints of the web including those of search and devices.
The surfing metaphor is extremely overused when describing how people use the internet and will be further overused here. So, you put a web site up, a wave if you will. How will you get surfers to that wave? One of the greatest and underappreciated things to come out of the web is Google. Search engines are an integral part of how people use the web. Search engine optimization (SEO) is a way to organically optimize a web site to work with search engines, effectively bringing your wave to the surfers. Google provides so many great tools to assist you in SEO even if you are not an SEO expert. What this gets to is attracting a bigger audience to your site. Basically, mais get on dat Google!
An interesting thing to point out about surfing is that people use so many different types of boards to surf. Your wave may behave very differently from those taking their time on the long board (beefy desktops) to those looking for quick access on their new boogie boards (iPhones & Blackberries) . Web standards matter in that they allow you to work with the variability of the numerous devices out there that search the web. Amazingly enough, following web standards allows you to optimize your web design for a multitude of devices without a lot of effort on your part.
Moving on from the surfing metaphor, let’s consider how web standards can affect load time. Even with the behemoth processors that are out today, the fact remains that messy code will increase load times. Web standards emphasize simple and elegant coding methods which produce faster load times. This allows for optimal processing for everything from the long board to water skis to pirogues (ok, had to use the surfing metaphor just one more time).
Staying informed about web standards is yet another way that web standards do matter. This allows you to stay on top of the technology that’s out there and effectively utilize what works from the hassle of experimenting with what doesn’t for future proofing.
For these and many other reasons, web standards do matter. They don’t suppress individuality as much as they provide an optimal paradigm for expressing that individuality.
Web Standards Projet: http://www.webstandards.org/
A List Apart: http://www.alistapart.com/
World Wide Web Consortium: http://www.w3.org/Consortium/
Web Standards Entry on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_standards
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