Above the fold

[ChrisGreaves]

Is it me or is the web really gravitating to "Below the fold"?

I scan many pages on the web, newspapers, blogs, technical support pages etc and I have a feeling that over the past year (or two at most) there is a tendency to put the meat below-the-fold - meaning that I must scroll down one screen (PgDn) to see the news/article/results.

Copywriters tell us to put the message above the fold. Of course, to their clients the message is the advertising, while to me the message is the text.

Attached is a typical article of the online version of The Toronto Star - my local city newspaper.

The home page - found by clicking the preceding link, offers perhaps a dozen article links above the fold and another dozen below the fold, but clicking on a link takes me to a page for which I see little of value (to me) except the headline at the foot of the screen.

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