[whatwg] several messages about XML syntax and HTML5

[Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis]

Mike Schinkel asked:
> And at the risk of sounding snarky, can you point me to a
> reference where is it codified that they are not (at least partially) in the
> business of standards? 

Spartanicus answered:
> http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com
> http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.yahoo.com
> http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tech.msn.com
> 
> Should give some indication.


A few counter-examples. Google's lazy hypocrisy
[ http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/200608/google_valid_and_strict/ ]
on the issue notwithstanding, their Webmaster Guidelines do say that
webmasters should use "correct HTML" to "help Google find, index, and
rank your site":

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769

MSN's "Guidelines for successful indexing" for site owners are buried in
a fabulous Ajax help system where you can't create deep links to content
(ahem), but they state that we should "Use only well-formed HTML code in
your pages. Make sure that all tags are closed, and that all links open
the correct web page."

Yahoo wants "Good web design in general", which obviously (cough!)
includes using valid markup:

http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/basics/basics-18.html

So all three search engines claim or imply that web standards help them
correctly index the web, which /is/ their business.

And as all three search engines are a blackbox, webmasters should
obviously be taking them at their word. (Tumbleweed rolls past ...)

--
Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis