java based websites - to be avoided or not?

[Claire B]

I am having my website professionally redesigned and the designer has sent me some page visuals, which look fantastic.

I have sent them to various friends etc to get their opinions and one person got back to me and said that the site relied too heavily on java scripting, which would make it difficult for many people to use.

She also said that search engines don't like java and that my keywords on the home page were in the form of images, instead of text, so again this might affect my rankings.

Does anyone know if this is true? If any web designers here would be happy to take a look, i can pm you the files.

many thanks

Claire

[Coding Monkey]

It will depend what statistics you view. Some show that around 88% of people have JavaScript enabled, so every 1 in 10 people who come onto your website won't see it "correctly". The problem is how JavaScript works, as it's cross-browser compatability is a complete nightmare. It's getting better, but there are many issues with it. It will depend on what they're trying to achieve. Many search engines cannot read new windows that open in JavaScript, but they can read the text in the "alt" tag in images.

Screen readers will ignore JavaScript, so if it's not an important part of the website, it shouldn't matter. For example, I use JavaScript for login scripts to check the information before they submit it. If they have JavaScript disabled, it doesn't matter, as the server-side code (which is non-browser related, so will universally work) takes care of it, so the JavaScript is only being used as a substitute for convenience. Also, websites like Hotmail will not allow you to login without JavaScript enabled, so you'd assume that the number of people who have it activated for general browsing would be a high figure.

You're welcome to send me an example and I can give you my view. Hope that helps.

[DotNetWebs]

From the comments your friend has made I am just wondering if you have JAVA APPLETS on you page? These are different form JAVA SCRIPT and should be used sparingly for the same reasons as Flash you be used sparingly.

If you take Mac up on his offer he will be able to tell you.

[Coding Monkey]

I was also wondering the same based on the terminology, but assumed Javascript.

[healthymedia]

Hi Claire,

The use of JavaScript does not necessarily make a page difficult to use, it all depends on how it is used. Java, while similarly named but not the same at all, is another cup of tea and considerably more problematic.

I'm not sure where MacMyDay's figures came from, but my experience suggests that around 98% of internet users have JavaScript enabled. Sensible use of JavaScript is commonplace and not a great problem. (98% of visitors to healthymedia.co.uk appear to be JavaScript enabled and 96% have Flash according to our Google Analytics). I would avoid using Java, particularly if your customer base is corporate, as Java is frequently not installed on client PCs. There are some quite good stats about web browsers on the W3Schools website, the seem to suggest that MMD's figures are more representative than my experience (http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp).

The main thing is that the people visiting your site can achieve what they require and that they generate the actions that you want. The use of graphics vs. text completely depends on the style of your company and the expectations of your customers. Personally, I prefer to use text above graphics, as it does index better. However, graphics with correctly designed alt-tags can work very well.

Think of how important content is vs. style for your customers, think of what people are trying to achieve in visiting your site, and choose the lowest technology solution that will achieve your goals.

I hope that this helps,

David