NYCPHP Meetup

[tedd]

At 7:23 PM -0400 4/23/06, Peter Sawczynec wrote:
>http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?articleID=00048144-10D2-1C70-8
>4A9809EC588EF21&catID=2
>
>In the above article "The Semantic Web" by Tim Berners-Lee he essentially
>presents that meta data (data about data) will be a vital component in the
>intricately interconnected Internet that will lift Web 2.0 into a new realm.

No offense, but "meta-tags" are not even mentioned in the above 
article and the subject of the post was "meta-tags".

The article deals with the larger use and application of data (i.e., 
data-mining, agents, XML, AI) rather than trying to cram everything 
"important" into a limited and outdated meta-tag methodology.

Sure, if you want to keep with current misconceptions, then put in 
meta-tags in your web pages -- after all, it certainly won't hurt. 
However, their contribution is questionable; what tag to use ranges 
from "useless" to "can't hurt"; their misuse is far too common; and 
their future is certainly limited. In short, they are problematic in 
their delivery of useful and accurate information.

If one wanted to study the difference between what the web author 
thought of his publication and what it actually was, then meta-tags 
may have some value. But outside of that, meta-tags usefulness as a 
real description as to what the content of a web page is falls 
woefully short.  And because of this shortcoming, unless something 
changes, their future is limited as an accurate source of information.

Meta-tags are/were meant for search engines. But not all search 
engines use them the same way and Google even reports that they don't 
use them at all (but, I suspect they do).

But as to the question of using "meta-tags" -- use them, or don't. 
But, it's the content of your site that makes the real difference.

tedd

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