Why do Google and Twitter use table layout? [duplicate]

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Does it make sense to use the <table> tag on a “modern” website?

Everywhere I go I see don't use table layout, it's evil, even Google says that, so why one of the most visited websites, Google and Twitter, use it for their homepage?

I don't think it is any kind of mistake, or any other stupid problem.

The only reason I can think of is, that they want the page to look similar even if client doesn't support CSS, like with Lynx.

So why everyone say it is so bad, if the biggest websites on the internet use it.

In my opinion, there are some cases, like those mentioned above, where it is vitaly important to have the same look everywhere, than it is OK to use tables.

edit: The same question goes about html elements like <center>, or formatting text with attribute align and other "html attributes and elements used to substitute CSS functionality"

Answer 1

Page load time is king for these guys, and bandwidth usage is extreme.

I'd have to say they use tables for raw data speed, since they are serving up so much bandwidth every day.

Also, notice that they use inline styles in the page header to reduce the number of HTTP requests to help speed up page load time.

Answer 2

Table layout gets more grief than it deserves. It's easy for developers to use, it's consistent across nearly every web browser, and it allows you to easily add rows/columns with little to no effort.

The only downside is that it goes against the mantra that your document should only contain content, and your design should be contained separately (in a CSS file).