This is a physical style element that makes contained text within
blink on and off on the screen. Netscape created the element and is
currently the only major browser or standard to support it.
Many readers find the use of this element to be particularly annoying,
and indeed it is distracting to have text disappear from the screen.
If the user is not presently reading a blinking passage (when the blinking
occurs outside of the focus of the field of vision) it can distract a reader's
attention and it may take several moments for the user to identify what passage
is changing.
Seriously evaluate the need for using this element, as it can create
as many problems as it solves, and only one browser type will display
its effects correctly. If you MUST create this effect, the CSS
'text-decoration'
property value of "blink" is the preferred method and has wider support.
Browser Peculiarities
DTD Note:[Test]
Internet Explorer 4.0 now recognizes
this element only so far as common attributes are concerned - BLINK does
not actually produce a blinking content effect in IE, but style sheet
attributes and event handlers can be successfully applied.
DTD Note:[Test]
Opera 7.0 recognized
this element in 7.0-7.11 only so far as common attributes are concerned -
BLINK did not actually produce a blinking content effect, but ID, CLASS,
STYLE and TITLE could be successfully applied. Beginning with 7.2, a blinking
effect is produced.
All platforms and many of the versions of Netscape have the ability to
toggle the BLINK functionality on or off. This control is not exposed
in the main user interface. See Mosh Teitelbaum's
"Disabling Blinking Text" page for more details.