Considering all the bashing that Microsoft gets for disregarding W3C standards (rightly) you would think that Google would be a bit more sensitive about such things.

I mean how can we convince clients about proper coding principles when Google doesn't even use a proper "doctype" on their home page?!!

Wake up Google guys

Nobody is disregarding W3C standards.
I'm sure that they have their reasons and they know what they're doing.

One angle is optimization especially when dealing with millions of visitors a day.

Just imagine how much you save by taking out a single char.

They would do everything to optimize their system not only to save resources (which they got plenty of) but also to improve response times and better user experience.

Just for the record i checked Yahoo.com (worlds #1 site according to Alexa)

34 errors

and MSN.com (#6)

would you believe it, validates perfectly!

This just goes to prove that while validation is a notable goal,


It won't hurt you a darn bit if it doesn't.

All my sites have validation errors. Does it really matter. The only bad thing from it is that sometimes error causes an error warning in the bottom left of the browser. It's only then do I either fix the issue or just change the page from strict to transitional

I know a lot of websites that have tons of errors, but it does not really affect their site, i think when it comes to validating your site that is your personal choice.

I will run my html through the W3C validator to check my html and if their are a lot of errors i will try to fix them, mainly because i want to show visitors to my site that i worked hard on the site, but i do not base my html around the validators.