photo: flickr member schatz
An interesting confluence of writings in the media: several authors questioning the use of defaults (some several years ago), most using their exploration to define why usage of default systems are a terrible idea.
The current overuse of default systems in visual design: Rob Giampetro and Rudy Vanderlans.
Google’s efforts and spendings in keeping themselves at the top of the user’s browser default, by Steve Lohr for the New York Times.
And Scott Fulton for ReadWriteWeb hoping, with his fingers crossed, that HTML5’s improved layout tools will kill the idea of the blog, including its dumbed-down format. This is an interesting one because it actually involves two different crafts (design and writing), but it’s only discussed from the viewpoint of visual design—leading me to wonder how writing would changes as well.