Gawker sites breaking the web


Another baffling feature of the new Gawker sites re-design is that it appears that they’ve broken the browser’s Back button. Starting at http://gizmodo.com, I’ll click a link for an article:

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That brings up the Web 3.0 Frames magic and replaces the left frame of the screen:

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Note the fun “hash-bang” URLs in the address bar. When I click the “Back” button or navigate using the browser’s Back command, the address bar changes but nothing else does:

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The title bar and main content stays the same, but the address bar goes back to the home page. Nothing else happens, I don’t get back to the original screen I was on. I suppose I’m intended to use only the in-document navigation?

When I first started doing AJAX applications back in 2004-5 or so, one of the cardinal rules we adhered to was “Don’t break the Back button”. Has this rule changed, or is the Gawker site design really that bad?

Not an April Fool’s post