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Content and Presentation Separation
The issue of framed websites are easier to maintain is ludicrous, since to keep up with non-framed sites the developer will have to duplicate the menu (something frames was supposed to prevent), then creating framesets for every combination of content/banner/navigation so the pages are bookmarkable (thus losing out on the maintainability argument). Since the reason for using frames in this instance was to only have one copy of the navigation bar. You'll need to have another copy for the [noframes] tag in every frameset - else the website will be up there with the 100,000+ other people under "This site uses frames" keyword search.
Printing
Frames break the standard browser print buttons. So what gets printed is typically not the page the user wants printed, because of the seemingly random ways which browsers select which frame to send to the printer. It typically prints the frame that has the focus, but without frame borders (which are typically removed by newbie frames authors), the visual cues of the selected page are hidden, thus affecting usability of the website.
Usability
The appearance of multiple pairs of scrollbars affects usability, since users are essentially confused as to which scrollbars to use. Hiding these scrollbars has the effect of hiding all content that doesn't fit into the frame, thus seriously impacts users finding their way around a website or finding the content they wanted.
Download times
If you "need" frames to cut down the load time you need to re-think how you're presenting the content. Images, style-sheets and Javascript should be cached.
Linking and copyright
Framing third-party information into another web page raises issues of copyright infringement (derivative works), passing off, defamation, and trademark infringement -- BitLaw: Linking
The alternatives
SSI, CGI, PHP, ASP do a far superior job of including one menu into all content pages and don't annoy the site visitor. It all comes down to usability for the visitor and convenience for the site developer. Using frames involves a trade-off of at least one of these factors. Where these server-side tools are not available, the web developer can always fall-back to the html-preprocessor, which is a "cheap man's SSI".
When designing a website, the primary rule of development is "Only Trust the Server". The website developer has the choice, thus control, over the server where the website will be kept. So the developer should always trust this environment to deliver the content as required.
From the visitor's point of view frames degrade their experience, they make it difficult to find what they are looking for, and when the visitor eventually finds it, they can't bookmark, or print successfully. From the web developer's point of view, frames are supposedly easier to maintain - but looking at the hacks above to get around search engine problems and bookmarking problems, the effort required to maintain the website looks to be almost double a non-framed website (or four times the effort if there is a non-framed version).
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There are, however, good uses for frames. But as a cheap replacement for server side tools and html-preprocessors, they are inadequate and lacking. The type of applications that frames are adequately capable of handling are those applications that don't require bookmarking, don't require search-engine indexing (and positively discourage it), and don't require the ability to be accessible to the World Wide Web. These typically are work-flow based applications that are created for a specific purpose, and not for the general Internet population.
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Rich
Real Estate Websites Search Engine Optimization Note: This post was edited because the use of an html tag in the post was preventing the page from being completely displayed.
[This message has been edited by Admin (edited 06-01-2004).]
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