Commercial Sites Take the Plunge

In 2002, mainstream commercial sites also began converting to CSS and XHTML techniques their developers might once have argued against on the grounds of “backward compatibility.” In July of that year, leading search engine Lycos Europe moved to XHTML markup and CSS layout, followed in December by American Lycos property HotBot. Around the same time, the super-fast AllTheWeb search engine [4.19] also converted to CSS and XHTML and added user-defined style sheets to its customization capabilities.

4.19. AllTheWeb, the search engine most likely to unseat Google (if anyone can), converted to XHTML structure and CSS layout in 2002 (www.alltheweb.com).

As of this writing, Google and Yahoo have yet to follow the lead of these somewhat smaller competitors, but as we've just finished saying, that is the nature of change: Small independents take the risks first, and the big boys follow when they're sure it's safe.