More and more I’m noticing a new trend in web-based forms.
The days of the <select> tag are numbered. The most recent example is GMail’s “More actions” drop-down.
It’s gone from
this 
to
this
I completely understand why. Unavailable CSS styling and
<select> bugs in IE have always been frustrating, but the real motivation to move away from the tag has been its lack of features.
With a JavaScript/DHTML solution you can simply do
so much
more. In
December 2004 when Google released “
Google Suggest” (which is an auto-complete-like drop-down of the search field) many developers started to consider abandoning <select> tags. Add to that the flexibility of cross-browser styling, adding images to drop-downs and dramatic visual effects… The end is near.
However, I’m not suggesting the end of the tag’s use. Using a <select> tag gives the browser the responsibility to make the form accessible to vision and mobility-impaired people which is often overlooked in a small project or web-based application.
