IOL converted to a standards-compliant CSS layout

A small project I started a while ago but never quite got around to publishing was my conversion of the large IOL news website homepage into a W3C standards-based, table-less, CSS layout. Not because I had nothing better to do with my time (although I was sick with flu), but because there's an important case to be made when it comes to supporting standards - see The Business Benefits of Web Standards at Netscape Devedge.

You can compare the two versions here: Original (69 kb) vs Standards-based (43 kb).
The standards-based page validates as compliant HTML 4.01 Strict and CSS2.

That they look identical is simple proof that tables are not necessary for site layout.

The idea with this case study is to prove that using standards-based markup, IOL could effectively reduce each of their pages by 26 kb or more - and considering they are one of South Africa's highest ranked websites in terms of visitorship, the amount of money they would save on bandwidth could add up to be quite a suprising figure.

MACCAWS have just published an inspiring list of high-profile Standards Sites, definately worth checking out if you're still unconvinced that standards are the way forward.