Why does the alt text still popup in ie7?
The first thing anyone learns about creating accessible web sites is to remember to add descriptive alternative text to all meaningful pictures and images so that those who cannot see them can still understand, depending on the authors interpretation of the imagery. What I have never quite understood is why in the ie browsers a tooltip popped up sharing this supposedly alternative text every time a user hovered over it. I thought this was one behaviour that would be left behind with the new improved ie7, but I was wrong. Personally I find this obtrusive, unsightly and unnecessary. Maybe some disagree with me and find it useful!
This has also lead to the complete misuse by many web designers of the alt text method, to describe destination links instead of the image itself. That is what the title tag has always been there for.