I've been tinkering with a thought. Is it possible that sites/pages that use no css might have a higher "trust" with the search engines? I hear many storys of hidden text, changing H1..H6 sizes, etc. You can change so much with css, that you could really create a well optimized site that wont be ugly. H1's everywhere, etc. I would think that the non-css pages would be more trusted as they are "what you see is what you get". I have a strong presumption that Yahoo is about trust and on-page, more than links as Google is supposed to be. Does this make any sense?
No, I believe making your HTML more clear with using external CSS includes makes your rankings better. One of parameters search engines operate is keyword density, and I think text/code ratio have an influence too. So IMHO having clear and lightweight HTML code (unachievable without CSS) is way to success in SERPs
I think to some extent you are both right. I use normal HTML pages, but in a way that there is very little code and most of my pages rank well for their search terms.
I created a tableless site about 3 months ago to give it a try. Used all css with no tables. Hoping to see an improvement. I read in some forums that tableless is the way to go. I'll give it some time.
The title is wrong. "Tableless or CSS". Isn't that the same thing? Using CSS for layout, thus being tableless. Also, using H1 10 or 50 times will not make a (positive) difference.