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Thursday, 23. March 2006, 21:33:57

Do you remember the Cola wars of the '80s? Coca-Cola and Pepsi went head to head in a battle of the titans to see who would become crown prince of the soft drink world. I plan over the next few weeks to bring this battle back and with many others, but not on how good they taste, how much they sell or their hip factor. Instead I'm going to set up duels between the top products or celebrities of their field, but with only one condition -- who has the best web site. There will be no relation to if like, support or buy the product. I've not fully settled on the criteria for best site yet, but it will be more related to compatibility, accessibility and good quality code than design which can be very subjective. The aim is to both learn what needs to improve in big popular sites, find the issues in them that we need to fix and hopefully to influence sites to improve; after-all they don't want to be slam dunked by their nearest rival do they?

The criteria I'm thinking about are as follows. Please leave comments if you've got ideas to improve these.

  1. Does the site work in all major browsers? (IE, Opera, Firefox, Safari)
  2. Does the CSS and (X)HTML validate or use standards based code the validators do not recognise yet?
  3. Are there any JavaScript errors?
  4. Does it use CSS or table based layout?
  5. Does it use CSS for style or HTML tags?
  6. Is the (X)HTML semantic and lightweight?
  7. Does the page work without plug-ins?
  8. Does the page work without JavaScript?
  9. Does the site follow accessibility guidelines such as alt tags on images
  10. Are decretive images included in the CSS instead of the HTML?
  11. If a print option is offered is it a stylesheet or a separate page?
  12. Is a handheld stylesheet offered or the site mobile friendly?

Not all of these will be yes or no answers, as clearly a site with one bug is better than a one with ten, and a site that works in four browsers is better than one that only works in two. I've also not decided if all criteria will be equal, but the site working in more browsers and being accessible are likely to be worth more than others that look at the quality of the code. If a site doesn't work because of a known bug in a browser then it will not effect the score unless it is easy to work around. If an issue is found to be a bug later then the score will be re-evaluated.

The ideas I have so far for web site duels are as follows. Any other suggestions are welcome.

Reporting Open the Web bugsHow the points will be awarded

Comments

FataL 23. March 2006, 22:55

Wow! It will be great comparison.
My additions:

dstorey 24. March 2006, 00:58

They're good suggestions, except I don't think I'd get away with the last one, working for Opera and all. I've already got McDee's Vs. BK.

It should perhaps be CNN Vs. Fox and BBC Vs. ITV. I was trying to think of a rival to Starbucks. In the UK we have Costa Coffee, but I'm not sure if this is a multi national company. In Norway we don't have any, just 7-11 and Cafe Del Luca.

WildEnte 24. March 2006, 03:33

Point IX, "accessibility":

I'd go further than that and judge whether or not the site is accessible by disabled people - in germany there's a law (Act on Equal Opportunities for Disabled Persons of 27 April 2002) that goverment sites have to fulfill this criterion.

I'm far from being an expert in this, but in point IX, besides alt tags you could also test things like: Is the site ok for people that are visually impaired (Zoom, colors, ....), that cannot use a mouse as input device, etc?

FataL 24. March 2006, 06:19

More about games:

abhitux 24. March 2006, 07:56

Great idea! Came across this suggestion via Opera Watch.

For those who have no idea about the various paramters being discussed ( for people like me for instance), why not have a visual depiction of the same? Something like "good" or "bad" or whether it follows the open standards or not?

You can of course back it up with technical arguments, but I believe that this would definitely go a long way in creating some interest in opening up the web and adhering to the standards.

Let the main stream media get interested.

I d like to see.. Microsoft vs Apple :-)

brianj 24. March 2006, 10:46

I think there should be bonus points for any sites that correct their mistakes based on your criteria too.

insertnick 24. March 2006, 11:19

It makes me wonder how hard would it be to make a php script able to output a vote based on your good criteria (of course, they're good!), having the site address in input. It would be useful anyway to sensible webmasters around the world, spinning off the launch of a better web. It should be something like a system where every webmaster has a login, and gains points based on a parameter taking into account the total number of check requests submitted and the corresponding generated votes: this will generate an objective webmasters' hall of fame, and the competition will be even more tangible and fun :)

dstorey 24. March 2006, 13:45

Brain: I'm thinking of contacting the sites some time in advance before testing them. That way, if they are interested, they have time to improve their site and work with us to solve any issues. Some pre-duel quotes wont go amiss either. A lot of the issues wont be known until I assess them, so I'll probably set up a re-match if we get positive feedback from one of the sites. Bonus points are a good idea as a poor site that is willing to improve is better than an OK site that will not do anything to fix their issues.

Insert_nick: A php/serverside script if probably difficult. For criteria such as validation it would be easy enough, except for issues where the validator is broken such as no CSS 3 support. For criteria such as how lightweight or semantic the code is, that is far more difficult. Certain things in accessibility can be assessed such as alt tags, but others require a human to check.

abhitux: I'm not sure how to visualise these at the moment, but I will give a description of what each mean before I start. They are mostly related to Open Standards to make sure a site can work on as many browsers as possible with little effort and as many platforms, accessibility so that any body can use the site, and future proofing a site so it will still work well as the web changes and improves.

WildEnte: I plan to test for more than just alt text. I'll probably be using WAI recommendations from the W3C as the basis for this, so things like have a good enough colour contrast difference, being able to skip navigation links, scalable text etc. It would be nice if I could get someone, or more than one, that is disabled to help me with this criteria, as I know the theory but how it works in practice is often far different and a better judge.

seifip 24. March 2006, 17:26

Winamp vs Windows Media
Amazon vs eBay
Macromedia vs Adobe :wink: even now :smile:
Vodafone vs T-Mobile
Mc Donalds vs KFC
Gmail vs Yahoomail
Trillian vs GAIM
Google vs MSN
Microsoft vs Apple
LG vs Samsung
Nokia vs Siemens vs SonyEricsson

:smile:

FataL 24. March 2006, 21:52

seifip is right - it's not relevant:
  • Sony Vs. Samsung
More relevant would be:

dstorey 25. March 2006, 04:26

While Samsung Vs LG makes sense, Sony Vs. Samsung are very relevant. Sony were the biggest and coolest name in consumer electronics, and now Samsung are trying to take that crown. In 2005 Samsung were voted 20th in the top 100 brands and the top electronics company, while Sony were 28th. LG was only 97th. I thing Samsung are starting to get that Cool trendy image that Soy always had.

mike 26. March 2006, 14:43

Harley Davidson[1] Vs. Triumph[2].

[1] - "To receive the best harley-davidson.com experience, please use the latest version of Internet Explorer, Netscape or Safari (Safari requires Mac OS X or later). Your current browser may not provide the same experience."

[2] - What suprised me, Opera seems to be supported now (was not earlier)!

scipio 28. March 2006, 18:00

Guggenheim Museum - MoMA | The Museum of Modern Art
European Central Bank - Federal Reserve
Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft - Sony Classical
OpenOffice - Microsoft Office
Marantz - Denon
Swatch - Rolex
Holland America Cruise Line - Carnival Cruise Line
EasyJet - Ryanair
SkyTeam - OneWorld
Airbus - Boeing
ESA - NASA
MIT - Ecole Polytechnique
Oxford - Cambridge
Nokia - Motorola
Vladimir Kramnik - Ruslan Ponomariov
Port of Rotterdam - Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore
Google Earth - MSN Virtual Earth
Torino 2006 - Beijing 2008
Blu-ray Disc Association - HD DVD Promotion Group
Pfizer (Viagra) - Eli Lilly (Prozac)
McAfee - Symantec
Heathrow Airport - Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Intl. Airport
New York Times - Washington Post
The Economist - Time Magazine
Nelson Mandela Foundation - Clinton Foundation
Festival de Cannes - Berlinale
Golden Globe Awards - Academy Awards
EuroStar - Thalys
National Geographic Channel - Discovery Channel
MTV - VH1
International Boxing Federation - World Boxing Council - World Boxing Association
Fujifilm - Eastman Kodak
vBulletin - phpbb
Bertelsmann - News Corp.
L'Oréal - Estée Lauder Companies
Unilever - Procter & Gamble
Suntory - Pernod Ricard
Otto - Quelle
Shell - ExxonMobil
Benetton - Prada
Citigroup - HSBC Group
Asterix - Lucky Luke
E. Leclerc - Carrefour
Top Gear - Car Magazine
Best Western - Holiday Inn Hotels
JPG - PNG
Texas Instruments - Casio
Diego Maradona - Johan Cruijff Foundation
LucasArts - Sierra Entertainment
J.K. Rownling - Terry Pratchett Books
Pickwick Tea - Twinings of London
Nivea - Dove
Penthouse - Playboy
ISO International Standards Organization - W3C - The World Wide Web Consortium - IEEE-SA
Nature - Science
Colgate - Aquafresh
Lego - Playmobil
Hasbro - Mattel
Efteling - Tivoli Gardens
Alldays - Libresse
Greenpeace - WWF
Landrover - Jeep
Ferrari - Lamborghini
Snoopy - Garfield
Oprah - Dr. Phil
Punto Blanco - Sloggi
Dr. Martens - Panama Jack
Bic - Parker
Snickers - KitKat
KinderSurprise - Nesquick
Whirlpool - Miele
Kenwood - Blaupunkt
Mappy - ViaMichelin
Michelin - GoodYear - Pirelli
Jan de Nul - Royal Boskalis Westminster
Alstom Marine - Aker Yards
DSDF Seaways - Stena Line
eBookers - Expedia
Democratic Party - Republican National Committee
Conservatives - Labour Party

I'll stop now...:insane:

LouisC 29. March 2006, 03:48

In Coca-Cola vs Pepsi, Pepsi should automatically fail for overusing flash.

FataL 31. March 2006, 20:15

scipio, that's enough! :D

scipio 31. March 2006, 21:41

:D

benbrady 14. April 2006, 13:17

Gigabyte Vs MSI
Logitech vs Genius
the chemical brothers vs the prodigy
Giant Bikes vs specialized bikes
Sram vs Shimano
VIA vs NVidia vs ATI
Western digital vs segate
Thats all i can think of, there is plenty in the other comments anyway.

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