IE10??
Posted On: 2011-04-21
After developing and releasing IE9 a few weeks back you would think that Microsoft would give their people a break ... maybe a holiday in the Caribbean or a trip downunder to see what life out here in the real world is like.
But those poor guys weren't given a break ... instead they've been working for the last three weeks on IE10 and they've got so far with it in that time that they can take the new browsing engine to conferences and proudly display it.
They've also got a test site up and running so you can see what's happening with IE10 and you can access that at ietestdrive.com and have a play with it yourself. And that's probably something that's worth doing if you're seriously into CSS3 because this time Microsoft is talking compatibility.
Of course they use that 'C' word every time they develop a new version of Internet Explorer and every time the CSS community starts having wet dreams about what they'll be able to do with the new version only to have their hopes dashed. It seems to have happened with just about every version of Internet Explorer that has ever been released and IE9 was no different.
However this time Microsoft is saying that IE10 will handle CSS3 in the same way that Firefox does so just maybe we will be lucky and Internet Explorer will actually work with all the latest CSS tricks without the need for any work-arounds and hacks to be incorporated into the style sheets.
At least this time they're saying that even the early IE10 test releases can handle CSS3 Multi-column layouts, grid layouts, flexible box layouts and gradients. There was a time when CSS just left me cold but now that I'm coming to grips with it and beginning to understand how it works news that CSS3 might be fully supported in IE is enough to get me excited ... just a little bit.
Of course neither you nor I can get too excited about IE10 and CSS3 because there are still a lot of people out there who are using old browsers and it's extremely unlikely that Microsoft will allow IE10 to run on any operating system older than Vista and that's going to shut a lot of people out too.
But Microsoft is definitely serious about getting IE10 out of the labs and into production. They've already submitted over 500 new tests to the various standards bodies that exist ... although whether they actually listen to those standards bodies or just do whatever Microsoft wants to do is yet to be seen.
It's also quite possible that everything Microsoft has done so far with IE10 could be tossed in the trash and a fresh start made on something that could end up resembling a modern-day copy of IE6 ... you just never know till the day it's officially released.
If you're less than comfortable with any form of CSS here is a link that you may find useful. If you're like my partner Steve who learnt CSS from a book your coding might be a little less than pure. At least that's what Steve is finding out now that he's doing an online CSS course.
Sure his coding works but it's rough and sometimes you have to wonder if every one really is seeing it the same way. That especially applies to some of the defaults that he has been using so for Steve and anyone else out there who needs to get it right here is a list of safe CSS defaults that you can find at nimbupani.com/safe-css-defaults.html
Is banner advertising really dead
For quite a few years now most of us who seem to think that we know what we're talking about have been telling people that using banners to advertise your sponsors is a waste of time. The people who hit your sites are blind to banners so they just don't work.
Well maybe they still don't work but over in mainstream advertisers don't seem to have got that memo because last year the amount spent on banner advertising was up 23.9 per cent. Of course you would hope that the advertisers were actually monitoring the return on their investment and not just throwing money at banner advertising.
If they weren't monitoring the return on their investment then banners are still not being seen and the advertisers are just plain dumb ... but if they were monitoring the return on their investment perhaps banner advertising isn't quite as dead as we thought.
Test it and see for yourself is the best advice anyone can give when it comes to banner advertising.