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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.

1. Popular Sites (news, sports, etc.)
2. UNC Related
3. Search Engines
4. Government
5. Standards advocates (sites that promote good design)

Popular Sites

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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UNC-CH Related

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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Search Engines

Name/URL	# Errors HTML 4.0 Trans	# Errors XHTML 1.0 Strict	# Lines of Code	XHTML Errors / Line
Google	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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Government Related

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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Web Standards Advocates

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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