[Sigia-l] potential challenge to the dominance of the left nav bar in local navigation

[George Olsen]

On 2/5/03 6:28 PM, "Samantha Bailey" <a2slb at bellsouth.net> wrote:
> that in the early days of web design it was customary to design the default
> (i.e., must see elements to use the page) for a 640X480 screen with the idea
> that the content could then drift over to the right

Actually it's even simpler than that. In the early days of the web it was
simply easier to build pages if the navigation was on the left-hand side.
(Trying to put it on the right side meant risking the navigation wouldn't
end up on the right edge of the window, but instead would be stranded
somewhere in the middle.)

And so it became a convention. Sort of like how the axle length of Roman
chariots supposedly ended up determining the width of modern railroad
tracks.