Yahoo Store and CSS

Yahoo! Store

In my opinion, CSS is the future of web design in general, but it may also hold much promise for Yahoo Stores.  One of the main reason for using CSS  is to separate content from display. Yahoo Store RTML templates generate HTML pages that combine layout elements with catalog data, which is not particularly elegant.  Catalog data should only contain actual product data and not visual elements, such as button color. One of the appeals of store tags and the catalog manager is the separation of display and  content.   However, store tags cannot be used to automatically generate a store hierarchy with sections. The goal should be to combine the strengths of the editor and CSS, via a relatively simple RTML template.

CSS is very powerful, but I’d be the first person to admit that CSS is not particularly easy to learn.  And yes, there are browser compatibility issues and hacks to be used. But the end-result is worth the effort. By the way, I have re-designed this very site without using any nested tables or spacer images.