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This time of year you either get hooked or get sick of everything politics. That's right, it's a Presidential election season and the 24-hour news cable channels are firing out tons of info both via your TV and online. Some worthy strides in web development practices have also come about on one news site in particular that may help political junkies get their fix anytime, anywhere.

While surfing for the latest election stats over at CNN's website I was greeted with a familiar sight. Various areas of the page were partitioned into a grid where, within each, a little animated "loading" icon spun around. Once everything came up I was off and running but I noticed something strange. When I right-clicked on images or text in those areas I was presented with the familiar options to view the images or copy the text. I had assumed nearly everything I saw was done in Flash but I was wrong. It was all standard HTML, CSS and images loaded up via ajax.

With Flash so prevalent a technology used for showing lots of live data why did CNN's site seem to buck the trend? iPhone. Apple's popular device allows folks to stay constantly connected via data over their cellphone with a very usuable mobile version of Safari. One feature it lacks, however, is the ability to display Flash. My theory for the shift on at least CNN's site (though I predict we'll see plenty more of this) is that iPhone owners fit the profile they want to reach: moderate to high income with the urge to always be online reading email, text messages, and news.

As an iPod touch user myself I'm really put off by sites with large Flash-based features that I can't access. Seeing some care taken to consider a quickly growing mobile audience is music to my web developing fingers.