Frames, bad. (Usually)
By: Diana
Date: Sep 02, 2008
Category: design
Ten years ago, web pages split into boxes, called frames, were popular. The common layout was a header box for the site name and logo, a navigation box on the side with links to the pages of the website, and a large content box where those pages would appear when clicked. Frames were always more of a necessary evil than good thing for websites but for public website nowadays, they aren't even necessary anymore.
Chances are, if you are hiring a web designer/developer to create your website, they will barely remember how to code frames and would not choose to use them. But if you have an older site that has frames (here is an example of a site that does) there are some very good reasons to update your design.
Because each page of a framed website does not have a unique URL, like http://www.spithra.com/blog.php, but instead hides the address inside the frame, users can't share your web pages with others by sending URLs or reliably bookmark the page so they can return. They also can't print the information they find there - if they find it at all, frames make sites difficult for search engine robots to crawl. You can use cheats, but the results don't ensure that users navigating from search engines will land where they mean to land.
CSS has freed the web from the necessary evil of frames, though in some cases inline frames are harmless, and a sometimes exception to the "frames bad" rule.