4 Sep 2009 11 am eastern

HTML5 Redefines Footer

It seems like only yesterday that the HTML5 Super Friends asked the HTML5 working groups to rethink footer’s content model to avoid web developer misuse and frustration. Okay, it wasn’t yesterday, it was Monday. Close enough. Today comes word that footer is indeed being redefined as we requested. This is a wonderful usability improvement to HTML5, and we salute the working group(s) for listening and acting.

Filed under: editorial, Education, HTML, HTML5, Web Design History, Web Standards

38 Responses to “HTML5 Redefines Footer”

  1. Josh Stodola said on 4 September 2009 at 11:12 am:

    This kind of hearkening is very promising, indeed!

  2. HeatherJ said on 4 September 2009 at 12:42 pm:

    Awesomeness! Thank the SuperFrenz for us, ‘kay?

  3. Ryan Roberts said on 4 September 2009 at 12:47 pm:

    Good to see the critics of HTML5 are now doing something productive rather than simply complaining.

  4. Neal G said on 4 September 2009 at 12:57 pm:

    Wow! It seems like the Super Friends can get anything done (In under a few days).

    I’m happy to see footer has been re-defined. Now if only the Super Friends could make Internet Explorer do an ‘about face’ in the same amount of time I’d really be impressed.

    Ps. Evertime I see this, I remember the South Park episode with the ‘Super Best Friends’. Great episode.

  5. Rob L. said on 4 September 2009 at 12:57 pm:

    Now that the Superfriends have been proven effective lobbyists, can y’all start lobbying Microsoft to pledge to fully support HTML5+CSS3 ASAP?

  6. Weston Ruter said on 4 September 2009 at 2:28 pm:

    Does this mean that the HTML5 footer is now an appropriate place for blog comments? I suppose not if header or footer elements cannot be nested within. article elements are the most appropriate for marking up an individual comment:

    This could be a forum post, a magazine or newspaper article, a Web log entry, a user-submitted comment, an interactive widget, or any other independent item of content.

    Anyway, it doesn’t matter where such comment articles appear, as long as they are nested within the blog post article:

    When article elements are nested, the inner article elements represent articles that are in principle related to the contents of the outer article. For instance, a Web log entry on a site that accepts user-submitted comments could represent the comments as article elements nested within the article element for the Web log entry.

  7. Robert said on 4 September 2009 at 2:45 pm:

    This is why the W3C’s close model of spec development sucks and the WHATWG’s open model is awesome. Under the W3C’s control, we’d find out when it’s too late. Under WHATWG’s control, you just need the right person to make some noise and things can get better overnight. I’m very glad that the W3C let the WHATWG keep things running the way they like it.

  8. Ian Hickson said on 4 September 2009 at 3:13 pm:

    The change to “footer” was made due to a request sent to the mailing list before you posted your feedback.

    If you want your feedback to affect the spec, you need to post it to the mailing list. Right now I’ve been told that you are still working on it, getting feedback from your blog post readers and facebook friends, so it has not entered the HTML5 feedback cycle yet.

    I cannot emphasise this enough: If you want to contribute to HTML5, please either e-mail me, e-mail one of the mailing lists, or file a bug (either directly, or using the bug reporting form at the bottom of the window when viewing the spec). While I do try to follow feedback on blog posts, it is not the way to send detailed feedback and it will likely not result in changes to the spec unless the feedback is highlighting a security problem or something obviously and unarguably wrong.

  9. Tweets that mention HTML5 Redefines Footer – Jeffrey Zeldman Presents The Daily Report -- Topsy.com said on 4 September 2009 at 4:46 pm:

    [...] this page was mentioned by Alex Gibson (@alex_gibson), westonruter (@westonruter), Ivan Nikolic (@niksy), Ivan Nikolic (@niksy), David Miller (@betaimages) and others. [...]

  10. Ryan Roberts said on 4 September 2009 at 6:41 pm:

    Robert:

    Under WHATWG’s control, you just need the right person to make some noise and things can get better overnight.

    Only if it’s what the browser vendors want ;)

  11. RSS said on 4 September 2009 at 9:17 pm:

    [...] [...]

  12. links for 2009-09-04 | AndySowards.com :: Professional Web Design, Development, Programming Freelancer, Hacks, Downloads, Math and being a Web 2.0 Hipster? said on 4 September 2009 at 9:27 pm:

    [...] HTML5 Redefines Footer – Jeffrey Zeldman Presents The Daily Report This is awesome, love learning about HTML 5 (tags: html5 footer) [...]

  13. Daniel Smith said on 5 September 2009 at 12:10 am:

    My two cents, but I’m just really glad to see the orange back again.
    Now maybe I can make use of all those color-appropriate pics I took centering around said color…
    >:)

  14. George Katsanos said on 5 September 2009 at 6:23 am:

    Now that the Superfriends have been proven effective lobbyists, can y’all start lobbying Microsoft to pledge to fully support HTML5+CSS3 ASAP?

    word.

  15. Jeffrey Zeldman said on 5 September 2009 at 8:32 am:

    If you want your feedback to affect the spec, you need to post it to the mailing list.

    We’ve posted the following to the mailing list:

    * Comments on the content model of small.

    * Comments on the content model of footer (now resolved).

    * Comments on using legend within details and figure.

    I’ve also written directly to Hixie about naming convention inconsistencies; Hixie resolved them, and the W3C working group followed suit within a day or two.

    So we’re good.

  16. Sam Ruby said on 5 September 2009 at 9:32 am:

    Jeffrey: I would encourage you to join the HTML Working Group. In return for agreeing to the patent policy, you will be subscribed to the W3C mailing list and get to participate in polls, votes, and other activities that will determine whether or not this draft is ready for Last Call.

    There is no requirement that you attend any meetings, join any teleconferences, or even post to the mailing list, ever.

  17. HTML5 in the News - withoutnations - Mark Mitchell said on 6 September 2009 at 4:43 pm:

    [...] HTML Redefines Footer, Jeffrey Zeldman [...]

  18. Ben said on 6 September 2009 at 8:10 pm:

    This is good news!

  19. Michael Kozakewich said on 7 September 2009 at 10:56 pm:

    It would be great to see your point of view in the HTML5 WG. I look forward to it!
    We need more page designers to add their expertise.

  20. Ara Pehlivanian said on 8 September 2009 at 8:22 am:

    I wonder, does one have to be a real-life friend in order to be an HTML5 Superfriend?

  21. IRC logs: freenode / #whatwg / 20090909 said on 9 September 2009 at 4:47 am:

    [...] [10:15] <Hixie> i found http://www.zeldman.com/2009/09/04/html5-redefines-footer/ somewhat ridiculous, btw. claiming credit for something that had nothing to do with [...]

  22. jQuery : codez branché ! | Les intégristes said on 10 September 2009 at 2:51 am:

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  23. Evan Skuthorpe said on 10 September 2009 at 5:44 am:

    A victory for people power!

  24. Draft HTML 5: no longer a markup language but a machine? - O'Reilly Broadcast said on 10 September 2009 at 6:10 pm:

    [...] things like this make it look like the result is muddling through, all von Bismarck and sausages of course. Setting [...]

  25. Web Design References: Standards, Guidelines and Patterns said on 11 September 2009 at 8:41 am:

    [...] HTML5 Redefines Footer – Jeffrey Zeldman New! [...]

  26. the hgroup tag - work blog - onderhond.com said on 16 September 2009 at 7:21 am:

    [...] been following the whole html5 footer issue with great anguish as I caught up with it chronologically. Luckily people are working on it right [...]

  27. web design outsourcing said on 18 September 2009 at 4:55 am:

    its victory over the other languages and why not as HTML is defining its footer rules in new manner!

  28. The Daily Report - Fils d actualités said on 19 September 2009 at 9:47 am:

    [...]  HTML5 Redefines Footer 04 sep 2009, 08:08 [...]

  29. Jeffrey Zeldman Presents The Daily Report - shared people said on 19 September 2009 at 12:33 pm:

    [...] blog posts For your pleasureBlood and boneSite UpdatesHTML5 Redefines FooterHTML5 For Smarties17 TweetsMFA Interaction Design, Day 1Loving HTML5DWWS 3e mini-site updates [...]

  30. Blink #2 - 21st September 2009 | Ric Roberts: Ruby on Rails developer, Manchester, UK said on 21 September 2009 at 4:14 pm:

    [...] HTML 5 redefines ‘footer’ element [...]

  31. ABS said on 23 September 2009 at 3:42 am:

    I’d actually like to comment on your latest entry, but you’ve disabled comments for it. I came here to see if you’ve updated about HTML5 again, and would have normally browsed away seeing a personal story, but it was actually very interesting.

    Sometimes very strange things come up at the table and you think, “How can no one have mentioned this important detail before?” Great story.

  32. Templete @Son Of Moto user said on 25 September 2009 at 10:59 am:

    hi Mr .Zeldman. i wanna ask how to make or set the pic float in another side not just in left side, on your templete? then why i can’t make a thumbnail image? what have i set of my templete?

  33. Ленты новостей - Mambo 4.6.3 Demo Site said on 30 September 2009 at 4:04 pm:

    [...] HTML5 Redefines Footer In response to the Super Friends' request, the HTML5 working groups have redefined footer. This is a wonderful usability improvement to the spec. [...]

  34. Webkrauts » Das Endoskelett einer Webseite said on 1 October 2009 at 10:22 am:

    [...] http://www.zeldman.com/2009/09/04/html5-redefines-footer/ [...]

  35. はてなブックマーク - vantguarde - 2009年9月6日 said on 2 October 2009 at 4:00 am:

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  36. Leroy Kids said on 3 October 2009 at 8:59 pm:

    I’m eager to see the finished product, but I won’t be one to twiddle my thumb waiting. Why not just wait, what’s all the excitement about html, it will get finished we will read and we will apply it.

  37. takeItEasy said on 5 October 2009 at 8:24 pm:

    So what? While you all celebrate what HTML 5 MIGHT support, and what it MIGHT do, we here in the land of FLASH/AS3/HAXE/HARDWARE ACCELERATION, are busy MAKING applications that can do practically anything. Will HTML 5 ever support DIRECT X? Will it ever support per pixel manipulation of bitmaps? Will it ever support computing and visualizing data inside of a slick and highly portable interface?

    NO.

    Now, if you want to build yer little blog, and have a gay old time talking about how great HTML 5 is and maybe someday post a video that plays in 1/3rd of the worlds browsers without using the dreaded Flash (we know you’re just scared of programming) then go right on ahead on with your HTML 5, it’ll suit you just fine.

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