HTML/XHTML Validation Statistics
What is Validation?
Validation is a hot topic in many schools of thought -- accessibility, cross-browser compatibility, and form vs. content. The act of validation basically means that the code of a web page is parsed to see if it complies with various versions of code standards called DOCTYPEs published by the World Wide Web Consortium. Some common standards versions include HTML 1.0 through HTML 4.0 and (in descending levels of "strictness") XHTML 1.0 Strict, XHTML 1.0 Transitional, and XHTML 1.0 Loose.
According to these standards, a web page should specify which DOCTYPE it uses so that the user agent or browser can know how to render the page. If a site validates, then there are no errors in meeting the requirements defined in that DOCTYPE, and one may conclude that the page is well-coded. Furthermore, compliance with XHTML 1.0 standards specifically is a good -- but not sure-fire -- indicator that a site is highly accessible for users with disabilities.
Diagnostic Test
Using the W3C HTML Validator, I conducted a two-step test on the subjects to determine how "close" each site is to validating to two different standards -- HTML 4.0 Transitional and XHTML 1.0 Strict (the most ambitious) -- and, then, how many errors occur per line of code. Many sites specified a different set of standards to use (they are all supposed to, in fact), but for the purpose of this test I manually selected the DOCTYPEs to use for each test subject.
- Popular Sites (news, sports, etc.)
- UNC Related
- Search Engines
- Government
- Standards advocates (sites that promote good design)
Name/URL | # Errors HTML 4.0 Trans | # Errors XHTML 1.0 Strict | # Lines of Code | XHTML Errors / Line |
---|---|---|---|---|
ESPN | 351 | 1148 | 973 | 1.18 |
MTV | 169 | 2018 | 1073 | 1.88 |
CNN | 43 | 609 | 896 | 0.68 |
Weather Channel | 184 | 977 | 525 | 1.86 |
FoxSports Net | 381 | 776 | 935 | 0.83 |
America Online | 291 | 1156 | 310 | 3.73 |
Macromedia | 25 | 361 | 507 | 0.71 |
ABC News | 513 | 1589 | 1156 | 1.37 |
Microsoft | 114 | 144 | 542 | 0.27 |
Netscape | 228 | 1766 | 660 | 2.68 |
MSN | 63 | 84 | 942 | 0.09 |
E*Trade | 163 | 626 | 525 | 1.19 |
Average: | 210.42 | 937.83 | 753.67 | 1.37 |
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Name/URL | # Errors HTML 4.0 Trans | # Errors XHTML 1.0 Strict | # Lines of Code | XHTML Errors / Line |
---|---|---|---|---|
UNC-CH Home | 39 | 314 | 182 | 1.73 |
UNC Students | 12 | 11 | 229 | 0.05 |
Student Central | 25 | 251 | 265 | 0.95 |
Tar Heel Blue | 253 | 1740 | 1426 | 1.22 |
Campus-Y | 23 | 209 | 222 | 0.94 |
Disability Services | 3 | 117 | 136 | 0.86 |
UNC Computer Science | 34 | 225 | 225 | 1.00 |
UNC Libarary Catalog | 30 | 553 | 698 | 0.79 |
UNC Dance Marathon | 74 | 180 | 334 | 0.54 |
Carolina Web Servers | 45 | 293 | 523 | 0.56 |
Daily Tar Heel | 32 | 739 | 1005 | 0.74 |
Average: | 51.82 | 421.09 | 476.82 | 0.85 |
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Name/URL | # Errors HTML 4.0 Trans | # Errors XHTML 1.0 Strict | # Lines of Code | XHTML Errors / Line |
---|---|---|---|---|
244 | 1030 | 52 | 19.81 | |
Yahoo | 211 | 2309 | 376 | 6.14 |
Altavista | 42 | 327 | 184 | 1.78 |
Lycos | 404 | 1662 | 222 | 7.49 |
Average: | 225.25 | 1332.00 | 208.50 | 8.80 |
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Name/URL | # Errors HTML 4.0 Trans | # Errors XHTML 1.0 Strict | # Lines of Code | XHTML Errors / Line |
---|---|---|---|---|
White House | 89 | 963 | 741 | 1.30 |
US Army | 8 | 237 | 341 | 0.70 |
House of Representatives | 176 | 176 | 303 | 0.58 |
Senate | 56 | 176 | 302 | 0.58 |
Section 508 | 72 | 230 | 428 | 0.54 |
ADA | 72 | 888 | 607 | 1.46 |
Average: | 78.83 | 445.00 | 453.67 | 0.86 |
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Name/URL | # Errors HTML 4.0 Trans | # Errors XHTML 1.0 Strict | # Lines of Code | XHTML Errors / Line |
---|---|---|---|---|
Zeldman | 0 | 12 | 409 | 0.03 |
A List Apart | 0 | 10 | 275 | 0.04 |
Use It | 8 | 281 | 242 | 1.16 |
Netscape DevEdge | 0 | 46 | 230 | 0.20 |
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) | 0 | 0 | 490 | 0.00 |
WaSP | 0 | 0 | 163 | 0.00 |
Ibiblio | 0 | 20 | 503 | 0.04 |
Universal Web Design | 0 | 0 | 160 | 0.00 |
Average: | 1.00 | 46.13 | 309.00 | 0.18 |
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