Blink tag

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The blink tag is a non-standard HTML markup element type which causes text onscreen to blink — repeatedly make the text visible and invisible in turn. Originally a Netscape Navigator element, it has not been fully implemented in many other browsers.

Despite the element being initially popular amongst personal homepages, it has since fallen into disfavor due to its overuse and the difficulty it presents in reading. The tag achieved notoriety for being extremely user-unfriendly and epitomized many websites when the Internet first received limited popularity amongst home users.

The inventor of the blink tag, Lou Montulli, has said repeatedly in interviews that he considers "the blink tag to be the worst thing I've ever done for the Internet".

1 Usage syntax
2 Compliance
3 Use in popular culture
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Usage syntax

Usage of the blink element type is identical to such HTML standard inline element types as bold (), underline (), or italics (), with the opening tag preceding the text the user wishes to blink, and the closing tag following.

In a text-based HTML editor, proper usage of the blink element type would be as so: <blink>This text will blink in compatible browsers</blink>, which would produce:

This text will blink in compatible browsers

The equivalent CSS style to the blink element is text-decoration: blink. Therefore, to achieve the same effect and stay compliant with the HTML standard, one must use Text.

The rate of blinking is implementation-defined and cannot be specified in the page.

[edit] Compliance

The blink element type was first invented for Netscape Navigator and is still supported in its descendants, such as Mozilla Firefox. It is also supported by the Opera Internet Browser. Most other browsers, such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer, do not support it, even in its CSS incarnation.