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Here is the result of the little survey:
BACKGROUNDS
| SITE | BACK-
GROUND |
HEAD-
LINE | MENU
AREA |
FORM
AREA | TOP
MENU |
|
| ALTAVISTA |
#FFFFFF |
#FFCC66 |
NONE |
NONE |
NONE |
| AMAZON |
#FFFFFF |
#336633 |
#EEEECC |
#EEEECC |
#336633 |
| AOL |
#FFFFFF |
#FFCC66 |
NONE |
NONE |
#CC0000 |
| CNET |
#FFFFFF |
#FFCC00 |
#FFFFCC |
#CCCCCC |
#000000 |
| CNN |
#FFFFFF |
#FFCC00 |
#FFFFCC |
#999999 |
NONE |
| EXCITE |
#FFFFFF |
#FFCC00 |
#FFFFCC |
#DDDDDD |
NONE |
| MICROSOFT |
#FFFFFF |
#6699CC |
#6699CC |
NONE |
#000000 |
| NETSCAPE |
#FFFFFF |
#99CCCC |
#FFFFCC |
#CCCCCC |
NONE |
| ZDNET |
#FFFFFF |
#003399 |
#FFFFCC |
#DCDCDC |
NONE |
| YAHOO |
#FFFFFF |
#A0B8C8 |
#FFFFCC |
#DCDCDC |
NONE |
BACKGROUND : Color entered in the <BODY> tag.
HEADLINE : Color used for main focus areas.
MENU AREA : Color used for menus or secondary heading areas.
FORM AREA : Color used to differ form area from plain content.
TOP MENU : Color used for top navigation menu if present.
Since these sites differ in layout, it is impossible to set up a perfect set of definitions for the listed items.
For example: Some have different kinds of menus on the same page.
However we have tried to the best of our ability to identify each of the listed items on each site.
If a single item was present two or more times on the same page we picked the color from the one with the primary focus.
If the item was not present on the main page we have identified the item on a primary subpage.
TEXT
| SITE | TEXT | LINK | VLINK |
ALINK |
|
| ALTAVISTA |
#000000 |
#000099 |
#663366 |
#FF0000 |
| AMAZON |
#000000 |
#003399 |
#FF9933 |
#996633 |
| AOL |
#000000 |
#0000CC |
#660099 |
#CCCCCC |
| CNET |
NONE |
NONE |
NONE |
NONE |
| CNN |
NONE |
#000099 |
#777777 |
NONE |
| EXCITE |
#000000 |
#000066 |
#990000 |
#FF0000 |
| MICROSOFT |
#000000 |
#003399 |
#003399 |
#003399 |
| NETSCAPE |
NONE |
NONE |
NONE |
NONE |
| ZDNET |
NONE |
#333399 |
#0033CC |
#6666FF |
| YAHOO |
NONE |
NONE |
NONE |
NONE |
TEXT : Text color entered in the <BODY> tag.
LINK : Link color entered in the <BODY> tag.
VLINK : Visited link color entered in the <BODY> tag.
ALINK : Active link color entered in the <BODY> tag.
Of course, conclusions from this survey should be made while keeping in mind that it was based on just 10 out of the thousands of websites available.
However, if the survey's relevance was based on number of page views, these 10 sites together represent several hundred million hits per week. Actually all ten sites are among the top 25 most visited sites on the entire net - that's why they were picked for the survey!
Despite the small size of the survey, there is little doubt that there are some clear tendencies towards using the same colors for the same type of elements (menus, backgrounds, etc.).
The only question is: why?
The next page suggests a few answers to the question...
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"Better Than Books - As Easy As It Gets!"