More on META tags

---------

Kent Landfield (kent@landfield.com)
Thu, 5 Feb 1998 17:09:52 -0600 (CST)

Here is some background information to authors. I apologize to those that this
is old had to but I've had a request to describe its purpose.

--------------
5.2.5. Associated Meta-information: META

The <META> element is an extensible container for use in identifying
specialized document meta-information. Meta-information has two main
functions:

* to provide a means to discover that the data set exists
and how it might be obtained or accessed; and

* to document the content, quality, and features of a data
set, indicating its fitness for use.

-----------

There are different things that can be done with the META Headers. I was
researching putting the Keywords: header information when I saw that I
might want to consider other headers as well.

For example: AltaVista and others recognizes

<META name="description" content="We specialize in grooming pink poodles.">
<META name="keywords" content="pet grooming, Palo Alto, dog">

The "description" is then assigned as the text the user sees when the search
engine returns the results. So... With a good Summary: header an author can
now specify what the search engine returns. (I am assuming Summary: will be
used. ;)) The "keywords" token is obvious.

Also:

<META name="author" content="From: line content here">

Additional information on META tags is available at

http://searchenginewatch.com/
http://www.stars.com/Location/Meta/
http://www.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Information_and_Documentation/Data_Formats/HTML/META_Tag/

So at this point I'm going to go play and see what I can come up with. ;)

-- 
Kent Landfield                        Phone: 1-817-545-2502             
Email: kent@landfield.com             http://www.landfield.com/
Email: kent@nfr.net                   http://www.nfr.net/
Please send comp.sources.misc related mail to kent@landfield.com
Search the Usenet Hypertext FAQ Archive at http://www.faqs.org/faqs/