For a while now, there has been a debate raging between web developers on whether or not to still support the 800×600 monitor resolution. As of today, my site still supports 800×600, evan though only about 10% of my visitors have their monitors set to that resolution. Globally, I’ve heard that 800×600 is still used by about 25% of internet users.
I was browsing the Apple site today, and realized they took the plunge at some point. At one time all of the Apple site was compliant with an 800 pixel wide monitor. Some portions of the site still are, but most of the pages now require at least 1024×768 (the most common resolution).
The New York Times took the plunge yesterday, their new site requires 1024×768. After looking long and hard at the stats for my site, and finding over 93% were 1024×768 or greater, I decided to go with this. It is still unfinished, but since my content will be above 700 pixels, it worked. I just find this to be a recent trend. I wouldn’t be surprised in with a changeover to 1280×1024 in 5 or 6 years. I am guessing this is likely when CSS/PHP starts getting crusty and new visual protocols become the norm, just like how HTML/Javascript has been pushed to reasonable limits now (they still hae plenty of life left in them), and CSS/PHP implementations dominate. I am not sure if flash will every escape the bounds of being an embedded visual format, like quicktime. I feel there are fewer flash sites now than before. I am just wondering what the next markup/interaction script will be. I have a feeling that its going to be a weird mix of “PHP”ized HTML like languages which define internally redundant Web 2.0 type structures (blogs, user interfaces, video chats) along with a “reverse GreaseMonkey” type architecture, where the site modifies the browser. This may be just a pipe dream perhaps. Any thoughts?
The great majority of users outside US still use 800×600. That’s sad. We always have to develop website thinking about 800×600 users.
I usually support 800×600 just because I’m not sharing high-res images with the world. Eventually, I’ll be upping my sites to 1024×768, but why bother unless the site looks cluttered at 800×600?
Webmotiva: Where on earth do you have it from that non-US users don’t have 1024×768?!
About 70% of my visitors are non-US; and only 2% of my users are 800×600-users…
How can ANYONE get by with either 800×600 OR 1024×768. If I’m on a computer using that I get so frustrated I have to leave. It’s like the dial-up of monitors.