I've heard so much bad talk over the <marquee> and <blink> tags. OK so they're not web standard and not all browsers support them, but they are useful. I use the <marquee> tag quite a lot, and i agree with the <blink> tag (sometimes it's good to get people's attention).

So cast your opinion. Should they be thwarted for being annoying, or should they become web standard and be supported by browsers around the world. YOU decide.....  :razz:

In a Homer voice "Tags are on the what now?"

both are misused a lot

( although thankfuly less than they used to be )

i know very basic html so i had no idea of the existance of these tags, so i can't really comment, however i think they could be useful to draw attention to special announcements, or something similar on a page

now that they've been added to the list of HTML tags i know then i'm sure i could implement them where needed

like i said, i'm only good at basic html, nothing more complex, i use a web page editor for anything like that, and if it needs a simple tweak then i edit the HTML directly (in other words i cheat, lol  :grin: maybe i should learn more complex html, lol)

Given that, presumably, these tags are used to draw attention to things and given that as you correctly point out "not all browsers support them", the browsers that don't will ignore these tags (*and the content between them*) which is contradictory if you wish to use them to highlight information.

They are not standard and I avoid them like the plague. With firefox usage now at, e.g., in Germany 26% you'd be wise to do likewise :-)

They are horrible and should never be used. The same thing goes for animated GIFs and flash animations.

IIRC, marquee and blink were tags created by Netscape and Microsoft respectively in ~1995/96 to differentiate their browsers. Back in the bad ol' days of the browser wars, Microsoft used to allow ISPs to bundle a free copy of MSIE with their internet access packages, but only if the ISP's homepage contained the infamous 88x31 IE button and contained a feature that wasn't supported by Netscape. As a consequence, every ISP's home page between 1996 and 1998 or so had a marquee tag on it somewhere, usually hidden because they didn't like it and it was getting in the way.

Using either of those tags will mark you out as a designer with no taste or subtlety who hasn't learned anything about HTML for nearly ten years. In short, using either is inadvisable - but they should be retained so that we all know which sites not to trust  :smile:

<i> <b> <u>
the HTML trinity

Semantically correct, validated Strict XHTML and CSS - the only way to fly

Mark Andressen once claimed that he created the BLINK tag as a joke and that he didn't think anyone would actually use it in a serious manner.

They're annoying!

what exactly do they do?

The marquee, when used with its attributes, does have appropraite, photogenic uses. Can't comment too much on blink.

I would have voted for an option along the lines of "They're both bad, but not completely horrible," but none existed.

so the <marquee> tag scrolls or what?

yes. Default = scroll from right of the page.

I use mozilla and blink IS HORRID!