People STILL Use Tables?

As I’m sure you know, I strongly oppose the use of tables for website design. I stopped using tables ages ago and assumed the rest of the web had, too. But I was dead wrong. I was on a message board and spotted a thread about a person looking for web design help. Somebody suggested he not use tables, and I agreed.

But we’re in the minority. Two or three people immediately jumped on us and told us about how wrong we were, one went so far as to say I’m just a stereotype of a wannabe developer. It’s a shame that it’s actually 2008 now and we still have people who’ve no idea what web semantics are.

Tables are made for tabular data. As in, to display data that belongs in a table. W3C has said this numerous times. But why do people still make websites using tables?

• It’s easier. Tables aren’t as difficult to use as semantics web elements.
• Big names use tables. Google, MySpace and other popular websites all sport table-based designs.

As a public message to all table-users: