A humorous infographic was recently published and twittered about, If Web Browsers Were Celebrities (full image). I’ve noticed more than several of these in the last few months, and one big issue about them continues to nag me: there’s no sufficient alternative text! (Also a good case for the longdesc attribute!)
So I decided to to my typing skills to work and provide the alternative text. Hopefully there will be more of these to come on this blog. So here it is, the alt text from the If Web Browsers Were Celebrities infographic:
Browser Compatibility; If Web Browsers Were Celebrities
[Each item includes a nice, large browser icon and a cartoon-style avatar of the celebrity’s face.]
Firefox – Can do no wrong, though not as spry as it once seemed. Would be: Morgan Freeman.
Chrome – The new hotness. People love it so much they’re nervous it will go wrong and embarrass them later. Would be: Christopher Nolan.
IE6 – Everyone thought it died a long time ago, but still seems to crop up all over the place. Would be: Betty White. [LOL!]
IE7 – After years of giving it chance after chance, performance never gets better. Would be: Matthew McConaughey.
IE8 – Trying desperately to stay relevant, even though it’s still the same thing. Would be: The Shatner. [William Shatner]
Safari – Reliable performance, seems to be everywhere. Would be: Samuel Jackson. (Just wait til he collaborates with “Chrome”)
Flock – Hip, but people don’t take it seriously anymore. Would be: Michael Cera.
Netscape – When it died, everyone said “Oh yea, that one!” and then forgot all about it. Would be: Walter Matthau.
Opera – Only ever used if you already have 100 tabs open in IE, Firefox isn’t available, and you have no toher choice. Everyone agrees it looks nice, though. Would be: J-Lo. [Jennifer Lopez]
IceWeasel – Who? You mean that weird one? Would be Kristen Schaal (AKA Mel on Flight of the Conchords)
Requires No Browser – Is unquestionably Keanu Reeves. [Avatar of Keanu says “Wo”]
7 replies on “Fixing Alt – If Web Browsers Were Celebrities”
As far as I checked, is this more a case for longdesc … This celebrity image has also an option to embed it in a website – this is a real pitty. Cause the image with no alternative text is getting round and round. 🙁
This is actually yet another perfect use-case for @longdesc, as the text you have provided here is significantly much longer than what a normal @alt text should take. Alt text should be brief and succinct while a verbose longer description should be text that adaptive technology can choose to access or not, dependent on the end user.
Thanks for yet another example in the wild.
s/the longdesc attribute/a long description accessible to everyone who may need it/
Nice initiative. I still think the original work could have been achieved without “infographics” which I generally equate to a fad that is probably not going away soon enough.
Have you contacted the site and offered the longdesc with instructions? I find that when handed with the total solution, site owners are usually happy to add it.
John’s right — this is a perfect use case for the longdesc attribute. Alt text should be short. In this case, something like “11 browsers and the actor each of them reminds us of” would be the alt text. If the context doesn’t make it clear that this image is a comic, the alt text could begin with “Comic:” or “Comic featuring.”
On the other hand, I’m not sure what mattur’s cryptic message means. I guess I need a longdesc for it, too.
Totally agree with John. A perfect example of the case for the longdesc attribute.
Also,would someone please tell me what the heck mattur is trying to say? Far too cryptic for me.
Thanks for this.
@Gary: I think mattur means that the longdesc attribute hides the text alternative away in the element rather than having the longer description available in some other way.
In my mind, the longdesc attribute has its place. It depends on whether people consider a longer text description to be strictly an alternative to the image or supplementary.