Since the beginning of the web, web designers have continually worried about the fold and fought the fold. The fold is the mythical line that denotes what the user sees when they first visit a web site and what the user does not see (below the fold). (I believe the fold concept comes from newspaper design where designers had to make sure compelling photos and headlines were placed above the fold to drive single copy sales of newspapers placed in newspaper racks.) Content owners and advertisers constantly argue and harass web designers for placement above the fold to ensure that their content is seen.

Clicktale blog has exploded the myth of the fold with some of their recent research. Their research shows that basically the same percentage of page views will reach the middle of a web page regardless of the actual page height in pixels and Almost identical percentages of page views (15%-20%) reach the page bottom regardless of page height.

While you’re pondering the effect the fold disappearing has on your website you might want to investigate ClickTale’s Heatmaps.