We are still using 88x31 buttons
53 comments
·April 5, 2025kcrwfrd_
gus_massa
Here are a few samples https://cyber.dabamos.de/88x31/
JustARandomGuy
Oh my goodness, thank you! I have been searching for a source of the small icons as an example to show the computing classes I lecture, and I finally found my rotating favorite one! https://cyber.dabamos.de/88x31/msntbciis.gif
Thank you so much - on the flip side, my students may dislike you because they're going to get a lecture on how the web used to be!
squiggleblaz
My favorite one I think is the Internet Explorer/Google Chrome "Same shit different - " one, because it's obviously recent and somehow iconic of the sort of person who reminisces about the old web, and clearly narrowcasting to such people.
qingcharles
"a few"
*saturates my Gigabit pipe*
LinAGKar
Or even an explanation of what the term means
mubou
Yeah, I knew what they were but I'd never heard them described as "88x31 buttons," even back in the early 00s, so I had no idea what this article was going on about at first.
johnmaguire
The first sentence contains a footnote (1) with links to a bunch of examples.
IncRnd
At first I read this as a typo for the 88c31 micro-controller that is used in buttons.
My stock answer was, "Good point, the 88c31 seems overkill for a button. But... AI isn't great for detecting button pushes."
Then, I realized the page was just a rant about web buttons and didn't actually show example web buttons.
Sharlin
I would guess that the author simply tacitly assumed that any reader would have the general look of 88x31 buttons etched in their visual memory.
Robotbeat
This vagueness and assumed context seems so common nowadays… you’re supposed to be in the know already and it’s gauche to ask…
thih9
The first paragraph of the article links to the buttons.
> Some examples of sites sharing some thematic elements spanning over 25 years:
> (…)
> They all feature 88x31 buttons in some capacity and those buttons reflect the website and it's designer in some way.
bcraven
I disagree, they all feature _multiple_ elements and it's only obvious what the 88x31 button is if you already know.
a3w
88 x 31 pixels? I had a hard time grasping, what the author is talking about. Especially since he shows large banners, not smaller buttons.
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m463
lol, that's what I was thinking.
That and how buttons from 30 years ago work with 4k monitors.
zenethian
Ha, opened the comments to say exactly this. Truly infuriating.
Cheer2171
Did you not read "Some examples of sites sharing some thematic elements spanning over 25 years:" followed by links to different galleries? Is clicking a link all that hard? It lets the reader browse examples at their own pace. I thought this was HN, not TikTok.
pasc1878
Yes but what is it - they are just elements - no description of what they are.
philsnow
> "No Alteration Allowed - The Netscape Now button must not be altered in ANY way. Do not shrink it; take it apart; change its proportions, color, or font; or otherwise alter it from the Netscape-supplied version." did little to discourage people and probably outright encouraged them just for spite - y'know because the Internet.
Colbert had Lawrence Lessig on his show and (obv in-character) said something along the lines of
> I would be very angry, and possibly litigious, if anyone out there takes this interview right here and remixed it with some great dance beat.
egypturnash
so did anyone actually remix this, I wonder?
yes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvvhDngERXo
with a followup remix of the episode where he discussed this remix
bongodongobob
Can you explain this to me? I don't know what any of this means.
cheschire
Consider it related to the Streisand effect or reverse psychology concepts.
philsnow
Except that only his character was Streisand-ing it; Colbert-the-person thought it would be hilarious to slyly encourage people to remix a spoken interview with a "great dance beat" (and, at the time, it kind of was)
rusk
I think he is equating stern copyright notices to somebody making a strong statement about what annoys them. As if to say “so what”, and the boom in “unapproved” 88x31 pics demonstrates this
bitwize
> I would be very angry, and possibly litigious, if anyone out there takes this interview right here and remixed it with some great dance beat.
For some reason, this makes me think of Strong Bad. Probably because of the sbemail "sibbie", in which The Cheat does drop a phat beat under Strong Bad's reading of the email, much to the latter's consternation.
DecentShoes
Kinda seems like an article like this should have some pictures of this button?
jccalhoun
The change from Netscape saying the official dimensions are 88x32 to everyone using 88x31 seems worthy of more investigation. The idea that Netscape made the unofficial one 31 instead of 32 as a way to tell who was official or not doesn't seem very likely to me.
II2II
I suspect the size hung around for a while for a couple of reasons.
The physical size (on screen) didn't vary by much. If I recall correctly, 72 to 120 dpi dominated until the introduction of Retina/HiDPI displays, and 120 dpi was pushing the limit since scaling wasn't really a thing. (When it was a thing, it tended to be handled by applications where it was important, such as desktop publishing/graphics design applications, and it only extended to the content area.)
Add that to the purpose of these buttons: they were intended to be unobtrusive messages about which browsers were supported, or which browser the site owner prefered. Going bigger would not have much of a point. (That said, they were as obtrusive as heck to those of us using unsupported browsers!)
Multicomp
The Agora road forum (a bunch of syntheave plus retired 4channers plus paranormal conspiracists and their dark web adjacent denizens with some retrofuturist early web revival themes) uses these buttons and calls them gangtags though the sizes are not always 88x31. It's nice to see the creativity of the new ones each months.
varun_ch
I love the 88x31 buttons to friends sites the most. From this blog post, I was able to follow ~10 links and end up on my own homepage. I think that’s beautiful.
tommica
Clicking the links and seeing some of those old sites really gives ahit of nostalgia.
Really good info in the article, enjoyed the read - but as others mentioned, some pictures would have been nice
dplgk
Related: some ex-Geocities employee somewhere must have a back up of all those sites?
capitain
I called it pieces of flair: https://quarters.captaintouch.com/blog/posts/2024-04-26-how-...
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null
Why are there zero examples of 88x31 buttons in this article?