Google reveals the parts of websites people don't see

More work needed

This tool simply overlays an image onto the site, which is ok if a site is left-aligned.

However, I have a site that is of fixed width and is centered on the screen using CSS.

On my widescreen monitor, the tool claims the page is barely 40% visible, because it includes the left-whitespace which resulted from centering the page.

By atomz on 17 Dec 2009

Then don't maximise you browser window...

I have a widescreen monitor as well, but I have the browser set to about 1000px wide, for normal browsing.

I can't remember the last time I maximised a window.

I've always used a background bitmap on the desktop which has the common resolutions marked on it, for testing.

By big_D on 17 Dec 2009

Not bright

Agree with the comments. For a company, Google isn't particularly bright releasing this very very very simple but flawed tool.

Very odd.

By treadmill on 17 Dec 2009

big_d,

You've missed my point. This tool makes an assumption that the web page is left-aligned (when many are not - try the PC pro site for instance).

It would be useful if the tool had the option to specify the alignment of the page (eg left, center and maybe even right), though this would require more work on google's part (eg they'd need to at least calculate the page's left boundary).

By atomz on 17 Dec 2009

What a load of tosh that was

By jonners99 on 17 Dec 2009

I was going to comment but then atomz had already made the exact same point I'd found on the first site I tried it on.

Looks like something someone at Google came up with after a very long Christmas lunch (hence the wobbliness of some of the lines).

By halsteadk on 17 Dec 2009

Good idea if it worked

Same problem as atomz - the tool suggests a good chuck my home page would be invisible. I tested it on a virtual machine with small screen size and much more was visible than the Google tool suggests.

I find Google is first class at thinking up good ideas but the implementation in practice is often less than excellent ( with some stunning exceptions like the exellent Google maps )

By cyberindie on 17 Dec 2009

Atomz,

I understood what you meant - which is why resizing the browser window for each standard resolution is the only real way to see for sure, whether it fits.

There is even an add-in for Firefox to allow you to do that.

By big_D on 17 Dec 2009

WIP?

Dont worry, it's Google. Ergo, it'll be at beta status for 6 years whilst they add all the features to make it useful.

By Fraz_pro on 17 Dec 2009

its free!

So Google put up a free to use tool, (that tells me over 90% of the people likely to visit my site, can see it without using horizontal scroll bars) and all any of you can do is complain. it may not be perfect, but if you took 10 seconds and one click to read
"We're actively looking to develop and improve the tool. So if you have comments or suggestions, please feel free to contact us at browser-size-external-feedback@google.com."

make suggestions rather than just criticisms

By thirdbrother3 on 17 Dec 2009

@big_d. I see what you're getting at (and I make use of those add-ins myself) but Atomz's point is valid. Google should at least produce a centre-aligned version, but could probably be a lot more clever and detect the alignment of the page. (But actually, I'm inclined to say they perhaps shouldn't bother doing much more with it!)

By halsteadk on 17 Dec 2009

Can't Google use some analytics code to determine the actual size of visitor windows?

By peteralmond on 17 Dec 2009

Does anyone know why the lines are not straight? Do people with small screens have widgets in the bottom right corner?

By davidsoap on 18 Dec 2009

@thirdbrother3

Sorry didn't see that my browser window is too small and I'm too thick to scroll :-P

By cyberindie on 18 Dec 2009

@peteralmond

Analytics wouldn't be of much help here... The google-analytics domain is blocked from running scripts on all my machines.

By big_D on 18 Dec 2009

I may have answered my own question about why the lines are not 'square' - some people have a browser window that is the height of their screen, but leaves a gap at the side, while others have it full-width with a gap at the bottom. Is that it? Can Google get that info? It still doesn't account for the squiggle on the left, on the 99% line.

By davidsoap on 19 Dec 2009