When will the internet catch up to HDTV?

[Komete]

I'm guessing the standard web page was designed around a standard 8.5x11 piece of paper, which was great for older 5:4 aspect ratio monitors that displayed 1024x768 and 800x600 resolutions, but the day of the 16:10 and 16:9 widescreen LCD has come. Isn't it about time we start to see web pages designed to take advantage of the wider field of view?

11-8 is what we need. Turn that 8.5x11 web page sideways and run it down.

If anyone is aware of any websites that take advantage of 16:9 or 10 displays I'd love to see a link.

[RyderOCZ]

The problem being, that (Lincoln will correct me) I would say 64 - 72% of the users who hit web pages are still on 1024 * 768.

Things like Google Analytics actually show those numbers to the sites, which means they optimize for the biggest audience.

Now, just barely a year ago, I bet that it was 800 * 600, so things are getting better, but it is going to take time.

[Thrax]

The W3C says that slightly over half the internet uses >1024x768, but that means that almost half uses 1024x768 or less.

Thanks corporate America!

[Lincoln]

The problem is that as desktop screens are getting larger, mobile devices are skyrocketing in popularity. Designing for a huge array of screen sizes is really challenging.

Icrontic's fairly tech savvy audience (top 10 sizes by width):
800x600 1.99%
1024x768 21.87%

1152x864 2.40%
1280x1024 18.40%
1280x800 14.40%

1440x900 9.66%

1600x1200 1.57%
1680x1050 12.23%

1920x1200 5.42%
1920x1080 1.84%


So ~25% of our audience is at 1024 or lower, and 55% are at 1280 or less. And, notice, that the above only covers 90% of our audience. The last 10% is stretched across over 400 different screen sizes in a fantastically long tail that is all over the map - 300 pixels to 3840.

[Komete]

Yea but there still a large market of wide screen home and laptop users and as far as I know there isn't a single home page or tech site that takes advantage of this large group. Could you imagine the advertising revenues if you ran a msn/yahoo homepage type site that was geared towards wide screen lcd's? There's no competition. It also doesn't have to use every inch of a 1600x1200 res display. The margins just need to be widen by 25% or so.

One of you get rich quick smarty pants need to get up and do it so I don't have to look at wide stretches of blank borders :)

[Snarkasm]

Yes, because exactly what we need are flashing ads flanking both edges of the screen.

No, thanks. I'll take a page designed for 800x600 over all my space being swamped with ads. What's wrong with a little blank here and there? It's serenity.

[Komete]

Yes, because exactly what we need are flashing ads flanking both edges of the screen.

No, thanks. I'll take a page designed for 800x600 over all my space being swamped with ads. What's wrong with a little blank here and there? It's serenity.

No, I didn't mean that at all. I'm pointing out that it is a huge untapped market. Same amount of ads as a normal web page just have the information rearranged to take advantage of a wider display. You wouldn't be courting the world, just the mega millions that use widescreens.

It also would fit the way we scan a page or a display. When you first observe something you don't go from top to bottom. It's a triangular pattern. It actually would probably end up being more comfortable. Also less scrolling, less searching, and quicker access to information. If you maximized a webpage on a widescreen now, one to two eye movements are wasted on dead space. ANd you probably would observe that dead space several times a minute unintentionally.

[kryyst]

I'll take a smaller page because while I run at a higher resolution generally speaking my browser isn't in full screen mode it's windowed and only taking up part of the screen for the majority of the time.

[CB]

Same as kryyst, I never maximize my browser on my widescreen monitor. I leave a few inches on the side for other things, like IRC. There is no way to tell how popular that is, I think.

[Thrax]

I cannot even recall the last time I didn't leave my browser maximized.

[RyderOCZ]

I'll take a smaller page because while I run at a higher resolution generally speaking my browser isn't in full screen mode it's windowed and only taking up part of the screen for the majority of the time.Ditto. I keep icons, txt files, etc that I use in email and forum posts to the left and right of my browser.

[Annes]

I cannot even recall the last time I didn't leave my browser maximized.

Same here. For all other things I use a second monitor.

[Thrax]

Even when I was on a single monitor, relevant information is a keystroke away (thanks launchy).

[Hawk]

I just use the Ctrl+ / Ctrl- in Firefox to size the window to my liking if I want to read, or if I want the site/page to fill the screen for any reason.
Other than that I leave it windowed also to see other programs on the side.