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Fri 11 Jun 2010 10 notes | Posted by rocketpilot

lachstock: benw: White 2000×1500 Please forgive me, but I’m going to be an unrelenting bitch about this Google background thing for just a moment longer: When you eventually figure out how to get a white background back on Google.com (once the background picker tool eventually loads—it will probably force you to log in again first—look under ‘Editors Picks’, and then ‘White’) you may notice a few things: On a white background, the text is still white, so you’ll be reading everything by shadow shape. Users of Microsoft Internet Explorer (which has shitty support for text-shadow) are screwed (screenshot.) ‘White’—which you and I and everyone else would just consider a colour—is in fact still served up by Google as an image. That image is named ‘White-2000×1500’. Sounds large, right? Don’t panic, the actual image dimensions are 1600×1200. Which is still an extra HTTP request and 11KB over the wire. And it’s loaded as an <img> element, rather than a background image. And that <img> doesn’t have any alt text, so screen readers are going to try and infer what it might mean. Like, they’re going to read out: “http://lh6.ggpht.com/_fxkujw2mA9U/TA79kGonjWI/AAAAAAAAAO8/wgt1U7ogm0k/e365/white-2000x1500.jpg”. Where was Steve Sounders when they shit this one out? Who implements background customization with only support for images anyway? What‽ It appears that Google’s gone completely barking mental.

lachstock:

benw:

White 2000×1500

Please forgive me, but I’m going to be an unrelenting bitch about this Google background thing for just a moment longer:

When you eventually figure out how to get a white background back on Google.com (once the background picker tool eventually loads—it will probably force you to log in again first—look under ‘Editors Picks’, and then ‘White’) you may notice a few things:

  1. On a white background, the text is still white, so you’ll be reading everything by shadow shape. Users of Microsoft Internet Explorer (which has shitty support for text-shadow) are screwed (screenshot.)
  2. ‘White’—which you and I and everyone else would just consider a colour—is in fact still served up by Google as an image.
  3. That image is named ‘White-2000×1500’.
  4. Sounds large, right? Don’t panic, the actual image dimensions are 1600×1200.
  5. Which is still an extra HTTP request and 11KB over the wire.
  6. And it’s loaded as an <img> element, rather than a background image.
  7. And that <img> doesn’t have any alt text, so screen readers are going to try and infer what it might mean. Like, they’re going to read out: “http://lh6.ggpht.com/_fxkujw2mA9U/TA79kGonjWI/AAAAAAAAAO8/wgt1U7ogm0k/e365/white-2000x1500.jpg”.

Where was Steve Sounders when they shit this one out?

Who implements background customization with only support for images anyway?

What‽

It appears that Google’s gone completely barking mental.

Source: benw