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- Fold Category List updated for WP2.3
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- Internet cable repair completion stalled
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- Drop-Down Menu Support Added to Fold Page List
- Wordpress plugin: Fold page list 1.5 released
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- Wordpress plugin: Fold Category List updated
Google announces Accessible Search
Google Labs have released an Accessible Search facility, to complement its standard search offering.
This is an interesting development and lends further credibility (if any were needed) towards the push for web development along accessible and standards-based lines.
Normal search engine results aim to present their results in descending order of relevance to the search phrase that was used. This may result, to varying degrees of success, in a lot of relevant links being returned, a large proportion of which will be poorly implemented from the point of view of blind or visually impaired users, or those for whom using a mouse is difficult.
By adding a further accessibility requirement into the search result ranking, the objective of Accessible Search is to bring the most accessible of the relevant websites/pages to the top of the results list.
Accessible search and its impact on web development
The message is clear… It confirms that Google considers accessibility to be important enough that it will influence the way in which results are returned to at least some segments of the searching public.
Accessibility though helps everyone, so it may only be a matter of time before this makes its way out of the proving ground of Google Labs and into the mainstream of internet search. If that were to happen then the impact on web development would also be significant.
