Via Rafe Colburn. Google has published an interesting webstats survey they did in December 2005 on how developers use HTML.

What raises the eyebrows for me is that the result graphs of the survey are all published in SVG and they do not provide any alternative raster images. If they are trying to widely publish their results, truthfully it's not the best way to convey their information, but perhaps there is a message here? Google also specifically recommends using Firefox 1.5 to view the results. This is the first time I've heard of Google endorsing the use of SVG (I'm not counting Google Analytics, since that was really Urchin Software). I wonder if we'll soon see a version of Google Local using SVG to draw the route paths, markers, etc for Firefox and Opera ?

I like the Google Code page. The atmosphere is very casual and open, and it really gives you the feeling that Google is chock full of people who are very interested in seeing the web advance (looking at HTML 5, using SVG, etc). In general, Microsoft blogs attempt to do the same thing but they don't come across that way (usually are very tight-lipped about what future specifications they might support in their products, for instance).


§215 · January 25, 2006 · QuickLinks, Software, SVG, Technology, Web · Comments Off on Google Survey Uses SVG ·


I came across Jamie's blog after he left a comment on my SVG Solitaire post. Apparently he's been a little busy with SVG too. If you've got 10 minutes and the Firefox 1.5 browser, why not go try a game of Worm SVG.

Great work! Feature Requests:

  1. Make it work in IE+ASV. Keyboard input didn't work for me.
  2. Make 'P' pause the game - useful if someone interrupts you at work, ahem...
  3. Make the worm and dots a little less blocky, more sexy, this is vector graphics after all. At least make the worm a "polyline" and use stroke-linecap="round". Or maybe a "path" so that you only have to change one "d" attribute every time you move the worm...
  4. Make it work faster in Opera 9 TP1 (if possible), see polyline/path idea above
  5. Make a server-side high score tracker (I've been trying to figure out how to do this in a hack-proof way myself)

My record (after 3 tries) was 200 points.


§212 · January 23, 2006 · Games, QuickLinks, Software, SVG, Technology, Web · Comments Off on SVG Time Waster: Worms ·


I came across David Bellot's SVG cards awhile back and thought it would be cool to put together a simple online card game in SVG. Read the rest of this entry ...

§207 · January 18, 2006 · Games, Software, SVG, Technology, Web · Comments Off on SVG Time Waster: Solitaire ·


After Rob called my code ugly, I decided to update my technique for embedding SVG into HTML and it finally crystallized into a nice solution for me. I hesitate to say "embedding" because that might imply that I condone the <embed> tag, when in fact I only use it at gunpoint. Rob came up with a suitable term for including SVG in a HTML document: inlaying (as opposed to inlining). Read the rest of this entry ...

§206 · January 13, 2006 · JavaScript, PHP, Software, SVG, Technology, Web, XML · 10 comments ·


I posted a week ago about how there are some blogs/sites out there that roll their own web statistics and display them SVG. After reading this challenge on the weekend, I decided to work on my own, roughly mimicking these designs. Read the rest of this entry ...

§205 · January 12, 2006 · JavaScript, PHP, Software, SVG, Technology, Web · 24 comments ·