Looks like popular Nepali sites are in LOVE with TABLES!

I know that there's nothing new when I say "Gone are the days when people designed webpages using the tables. They are tedious, uncanny and creepy or whatever ugly adjectives you would want to use here." Still, I find a lot of webpages using tables! "YIKES!" is the word that I would like to express my feelings towards such web designs. No hard feelings if you are one of those designers:).

Ok, let's take a look at following popular Nepali websites.

1.   Cybersansar (http://cybersansar.com)

I guess, there aint a single person reading this article who do not know about this site. Call it an entertainment portal or a model-watch site; it really is popular among all the Nepali Internet users.
Earlier known as cybernepal.com.np, this site has been using table designs since its birth. The designer does a wonderful job when it comes to just "designing". Designing here refers to the "Look and Feel" of the site. It surely is an eye catcher, no doubt about that. However, when it comes to the coding – xhtml/css, you'll come through this series of independent and nested tables, that will surely make an xhtml/css guy go "Oh dear god!"

Cybersansar guys, can you please convert yourself from table to table-less designs? It doesn’t look professional in any ways. There are other good reasons too why you should be transforming which I will discuss in my next article.
Furthermore, I don’t even know how I can contact these cybersansar guys. Surely, I would not want to do it through phone:P. Therefore, I tried to look up for the contact page. And guess what, they don’t even have a contact page. And still, they would call their new design as "Web 2.0". (wikipedia: web 2.0).
The very first line in the wikipedia.org of the web 2.0 page says
"The term Web 2.0 refers to a perceived second generation of web development and design, that aims to facilitate communication, secure information sharing, interoperability, and collaboration on the World Wide Web."
AHEM!! I wonder where they have hidden the communication, collaboration part in their website.

2.    Thikthak dot com (http://thikthak.com)

Everything that I said for cybersansar guys goes here as well. Also, guys, please think of something new concept about drawing users other than putting up model pictures.

3.    Republica (http://myrepublica.com)

Oh man! Republica as well?? I did'nt know about that. Okay, lets start with good notes. The Republica site is very informative. The pace with which they update their site is impressive. And they all seem authentic as well. Rajesh K.C's cartoon has always been hilarious. The other sections look good too. And it is also good to see all the distracting ads being pushed towards the lower region of the page.
Okay, let's open up our firebug and see what's in the codes. TABLES! AGAIN!! Phew! Now this is a newly built site. I thought this had to be done in divs and tableless. But no, I was wrong. Totally wrong!
Guys, please covert yourself to tableless.

4.    Ekantipur (http://ekantipur.com)

Nepal's No. 1 News Portal - That is exactly what they say about themselves. Maybe it's true. Or maybe not. Who knows? Anyways, that's not the matter of discussion here.
So, as for the other sites, I went into this site, fired up my firebug, and whoaaa!! what do I see?? There are no tables used!! How can that be? Few months back they did. But they must have redesigned the entire thing and maybe made it table-less. I was sad and happy at the same time. Sad - because, I thought I have one less "example" site to showcase here. Happy – because, I felt, there's at least one popular site that is table-less.
Then why am I citing ekantipur here then? Well, I thought let's explore some more. So I went on with a nice grin on my face and made my way through the features section of the site. My initial reaction to this: Wait a minute, this looks like the old ekantipur design! Suddenly I had this sarcastic grin on my face now. And so, I fired up my firebug again. Now, what do I see? Like expected, tables! Oh dear god! Guys, please don’t try to act smart by just making it table-less only on the front page. After all, when you do it, you do it all the way through.
But still, I feel happy that you guys implemented on the homepage. I pray you are in the process of redesigning the whole stuff. I understand, redesigning is a hectic job.

5.    Nepalnews (http://nepalnews.com)

You used to be a proffesional site to me until I knew about the web standrds. Content wise, you are good, better infact. Web statndard wise, not so good:(.

Enough of sarcasm and criticism! For all of above websites, and for everyone who still use tables for web designs, please take a look at following articles:

13 Reasons Why CSS Is Superior to Tables in Website DesignTop 7 Nepali websites out of standards
All im trying to say is, stick with standards people! Tableless designs are far more effeicient and clean. HTML tags are not about styling. They are about giving structure to your content. Leave the styling purpose to CSS and CSS only:).