What's The Point Of Markup Validation?

I don't understand the point in validating your website. I honestly don't think that it is necessary just based on the fact that all of the major sites that I have ran the validator on have had 30+ errors. I am just curious in your opinions on what the benefits are in validating your websites code.

Google - 30 errors
Yahoo - 34 errors
CNN - 123 errors
Apple - 4 errors
Dmoz.org - 4 errors
Myspace.com 118 errors
MSN - PASSED!

Validation of the code is like an image of the programmer... let me rephrase that, the CODE of the page/site is the image of the programmer. If the code is valid than the page/site had more chances of being rendered the same on all browsers and it shows that the programmer knows his/her job.

So you don't think that invalid code affects rankings or anything SEO related? Are their any other benefits for having valid code? Thanks.

Of course it does ... let's say you forgot to close a <p> tag somewhere ... the page would most likely still be displayed pretty accurately, but now googlebot comes along and scans your <p> tags and sees all sorts of junk in there because it was never closed ... thus your site is either seen as spam, or you don't get the right search keywords that you wanted ...

Also different browsers won't display pages exactly the same ... but if your site is STRICT valid, it's very difficult to make it look different ...

- Good for SEO
- Good for browser compatibility
- Good for your reputation

Making your pages valid is really worth your time.

Well my argument is that if that is true, why do all those major sites not follow it?

I don't think any of us have much contact with the major companies on a daily basis, so it's rather tough to ask them ... Now that I think of it,, Bill (Gates) is coming over for a BBQ on saturday though ... I'll try and find out from him ...

On topic; Standards aren't laws. Strict adherence is a choice. While the sites you mentioned do have flaws, in the strictest sense, they are all sites that function more than adequately for their users.

In mechanical engineering, there are standards. For instance, if I needed a bolt, I would grab my Machinist's Handbook and find a standard bolt to use. However, there may be situations where I need to create a solution that is non-standard. Guess what? That's okay. That's where innovation happens.

A dictionary is a set of standards. Few people actually adhere to them. The dictionary doesn't define usage. Usage defines the dictionary.

Standards are a baseline...a centralization of an idea.

In any case, these technologies are still in their infancies. In 10 years, the things we now consider standards will likely be passé.

Having said all that, I tend to write valid XHMTL/CSS, but I don't sweat one or two errors and I never, ever, put the validation pog on my pages.

That clears things up. Thanks.

Another thing to keep in mind is that alot of those companies have employees of theirs on the standards boards.

For instance, take a look at the editor names on this draft.
http://www.w3.org/html/wg/html5/
What may be an error today, could very well be a standard tomarrow. Except in the case of ignorant errors like closing a parent tag before closing the child tag.

You would be wise to stick with the standards being put in place by the companies that spread your message if your business is what the web moves instead of how the web moves it. At least untill you move enough to influence those companies & convince them that making changes which make your life easier is in their best interest.

Most of the time, a heavy PHP/MySQL site will cause the site to not be valid, but there are ways around that. Also, it's good to stick with standards just like all the others have said. There's less chance for your site to be screwed up on all browsers. Although that doesn't count for IE, as thats just a POS browser anyway XD.

I don't follow your logic at all. The back-end part of a site shouldn't cause you to write bad/invalid code.

Bogey posted up a link to a plug in on his blog, for a w3 validator.

Every single site I have been to incl google.com has come up with oodles of errors and im wondering if it isnt just a little but anal.

On one site some of the errors were using a Meta Link Tag to a stylesheet in the middle of the page
Some errors are putting the / at the end of a closing tag
Some sites it was not putting the / at the end of a closing tag

Is there a
<!DOCTYPE

that does allow you to use meta link tags in the middle of a page?
Are W3 a bunch of tossers with to much time on their hands and what benefits are there to making your site error free.

eg, im really lazy and I never ever freakn ever close my <p> tags, it just doesnt happen for me ( I use textpad ) it works fine.

should I really care about people using opera or safari, if they want to use random browsers should it mean I have to spend 3 hours correcting code so they can view it.

can someone point me to a site that doesnt have errors because I havnt seen one yet.

thanks

http://www.ohdesignx.com ... lol

ahh swt ty