Most ordinary people (read: non-Web-dorks) don’t give a fig about the difference between Flash and HTML5; CSS 1, 2, or 3; or any such technical blather. But, I’d like to take just a moment to draw attention to one cool up-and-coming new bell/whistle: transition effects.

When you roll over a link on a Web page, very often it changes color to let you know you’re on the link. All well and good. But what if it changed color with style? In just the last year, some of the major browsers have begun supporting some experimental features, including animated transition effects.

With the new effects, now when you roll over a link, or roll off, it needn’t change color instantly. The rollover color can fade in, or fade out, as quickly or slowly as you want. Take the links on my site, for example:

This is a standard link
This is an animated link

If you’re using Chrome or the latest version of Safari, you’ll see the second link fade to red when you roll over it, and then fade to black when you roll off. The same idea shows up on the main menu at top. Go ahead – roll your mouse along the links and watch them fade. I’ll wait…

If you’re not using the most up to date browser, links still change color like they’ve always done. You don’t get the cool effect, but you do still get the color change. This is called degrading gracefully, and I for one love it!

It’s easy to overdo it on effects like these, but hopefully you’ll agree that I’ve used them tastefully on my site.