Are Marquees Safe to Use?

Question

I personally love marquees when used properly and sparingly. You don't see them a lot anymore but I think they can add some simple eye-candy to load in things like news feeds or updates etc. Since it is not part of the standards anymore is there any chance that a browser might not support the marquee tag some time in the future? Should I avoid my personal preference just to be safe?

Answer 1

I really doubt the marquee will make a comeback. I have no proof, however I can offer a replacement. Quite simply, the marquee tag wasn't all that configurable. These days web developers demand a lot more control. You can easily emulate a marquee using javascript (here's an example). So for now, my advice is if you must have a marquee, use javascript. If it makes a comeback later, it'll be trivial to switch back.

Answer 2

As far as I see, there is no real threat or harm in using <marquee>. Clearly on this link, W3C implies the "Don't use it" anymore scheme. No offense, but I find <marquee> to be some kind of cheap attention grabber, nowadays. It had its day, probably you might want to settle in using JavaScript as mandatory alternative.