Better Than HTML “text-indent: -9999px”

Maile Ohye of Google has posted on her personal blog about the infamous hidden text tricks, saying that

If possible, it’s still best to avoid techniques such as “text-indent:-9999px” or “margin:-4000px” or “left:-2000em”

Well of course Google doesn’t like it, but I keep seeing quite a lot of these like it’s still 2001. I bet you all have seen them too or maybe even use them still (do you? shame on you, grow up and be more creative!). This is not big news really, what follows in her post is interesting tho. She talks about ways to alternately hide whatever needs to stay off the visible page for legitimate reasons, and the suggestions she lists are @media speech { } vs @media screen { } and the HTML 5 hidden=”” attribute. Not really sure about the hidden attribute, but I believe I have seen already the “media” trick used for a bit less than legitimate reasons – how long till Google starts hunting for those as signs of spam instead of recommending them?

2 Comments.

  1. I guess Maile Ohye should read your previous post.

  2. LOL well I am pretty sure she is aware of such things. Just goes to prove that whatever Google makes the judging point can and will get exploited – because, well, if you are in it for making money you will look for whatever works.