Testing Search Engines with W3C HTML Validator

August 17th, 2006 by Loren Baker, Editor | No Comments

Testing Search Engines with W3C HTML Validator

Google Blogoscoped reader Jake took the initiative of running the major search engines through the W3C HTML Validator to find out which search engine has the least HTML syntax errors.

As simple as the task may seem, sometimes it takes someone to think a bit outside of the box, this time the thinker is apparently a 9 year old blogger. The end result may be quite surprising for Google fanatics in the crowd.

Here are the results of Jake’s test, as posted in the Google Blogoscoped Forums:

1. 1st place - MSN - Passed!
2. 2nd place - Altavista - Failed, 38 errors
3. 3rd place - Yahoo - Failed, 41 errors
4. 4th place - Google - Failed, 61 errors
5. 5th place - Ask.com - Failed, 64 errors
6. Runner-up - Dogpile - Failed, 70 errors