Years ago, websites were optimized for 640x480 screens, later until recently for 800x600. Not too long ago some self-appointed webdesign gurus officially announced that 800x600 is dead and 1024x768 is how a website has to look like.

Yes, screens are becoming bigger and bigger. But why do they think that application windows are always maximized? I have a screen-resolution of 1280x1024 but I HATE when pages have a fixed size of 1024x768! My screen is big enough, but my browser window is not.

A little more scalability doesn't have that much impact on eye-candy.