The current web technology used on the main College of Engineering web site will soon be transitioning from the existing HTML 4.0 code base to a combination of XHTML and Cascading Style sheets (CSS). We are also striving to adopt as many of the Web Accessibility Guidelines recommended by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) as is appropriate and feasible over time. The transition will result in numerous benefits including:

• a more accessible website
• a faster website
• a more searchable site
• a web site that is easier to maintain and modify
• a more "future-proof" site
• a versatile site that is able to transform itself based on the viewing mode or preferences of the browser (for example: PDAs, wireless devices, and others).

For an easy to understand explanation of both the technologies and benefits of adopting a "web standards" approach, refer to the web standards web site at http://webstandards.org/learn/faq. Most modern web browsers, such as Mozilla, and later versions of Netscape and Internet Explorer, have relatively good support for these new web standards. If you use one of these browsers, you may not even notice the changes in our website. However, if you are using an older browser, you may experience difficulty with the new College site when the updates are made. In particular, Netscape 4.x is an old (in "web years") browser that is still in use and does not support new well-established standards. CAEN recommends that you update your browser if you are still using an older version.

Send comments to webmaster@engin.umich.edu.