ALT tag & Firefox

[FictionNet]

Well, y'learn something new every day. Am I the only person who had no idea that Firefox doesn't support the ALT tag?

According to this thread, it's been common knowledge since 2005!
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum119/130.htm

[slotplayer]

yes I did. And you can use the title tag on almost any html tag: div, span, table, td, img, etc..

[Wildnettechnologies]

<table id="post731019" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr valign="top"><td id="td_post_731019" class="pbmiddle">I think I read in the Firefox bumph somewhere that Firefox is keeping to W3C
compliancy and using ALT as it was meant to be used.
> anyone has got idea, how to show hint string on web page?
>
> in IE, ALT tag works fine, in FireFox it doesn't : (
>
>
>
alt tag on mouseover is not supported in FF, but title is. alt tags in
FF only displays if the image does not load.
<!-- google_ad_section_end -->
<!-- / message -->
</td> <td class="pbright" rowspan="3" align="center" width="14">
</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="pbmiddle" style="padding-right: 5px;" height="100%" valign="bottom">
</td></tr></tbody></table>

[best.hands]

Well, y'learn something new every day. Am I the only person who had no idea that Firefox doesn't support the ALT tag?

According to this thread, it's been common knowledge since 2005!
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum119/130.htm

I would only care about it if it is Google that does not support the alt tag. Moreover, I think this points out that it is wise to optimize your images on both alt and title attributes. So, no matter which browser your page will be viewed, the browser will always have options to clearly digest and show the page.

[universal4]

Since this subject has been opened, here is a query that I would like to see opinions on.

If you use both alt and title tags, is it ok to use the same tag or should they be unique also?

I have one site where I use both that I use the sales pitch type of tag in the title and use the alt to name the image.(in reality this might be closer to the original intentions of what they are used for. the alt tag is really to be used to tell the visitor what the image is if they have images turned off)

Interested in how others use this.

Bytheway, if your page uses a title tag, the title is what is shown on a mouse over NOT the alt....and the title shows in all browsers I have tested....although I am not sure about Chrome.

Rick
Universal4

[atari]

Since this subject has been opened, here is a query that I would like to see opinions on.

If you use both alt and title tags, is it ok to use the same tag or should they be unique also?

Here's my rule of thumb:

The Alt tag on your image should accurately describe the image (because you own this image (right?) and you want it accurately indexed in the google image search).

Since the title is describing your product, and the image is of the product, the alt tag will be different than the title tag, but they'll be about the same thing, and probably use the same keywords.

It's better to talk about your product in many different ways to give google more context on what the page is about, than to repeat one main phrase. If the alt tag and body text all support the same idea as the title you're going to do just fine.

[slotplayer]

I believe the alt tag (its actually not a tag but an attribute) intent was for those using text only browsers suchas Lynx (or those that have images disabled in modern day graphical browsers as mentioned in the previous posts) and more importantly for the visually impaired. Those using certain screen readers can hear the alt attribute text.

IE browsers prior to v8 incorrectly rendered the alt attribute as a tool tip. ie.. like a title attribute. This has been corrected in IE 8.

I use them similiar to how Rick does.

[Bhanvad]

It is good to know, but we don't use firefox and most people are start using chrome these days for faster browsing.