I'm not sure about the degree to which Google actually uses meta tags anymore, but if someone has a definitive reference to shed some light on this, it might be useful from an anecdotal standpoint, only.
We know that most meta tags, being invisible to humans, have been routinely spammed. We also know that search engines also have learned to ignoe such behavior, in the case of ignoring text that's the same color as the background or 1 or 2px tall. Both are efforts to overload a page's relevance by including data that is effectively invisible to humans but shows up in the computer-friendly data. So, IMO, people can use invisible microformatted html all they want, but in my advocacy with browser makers, it's likely that I will be confronted by the view that only indivisible data will be considered for microformat parsing -- that is, data who's calculated style is to be visible to humans at the point of rendering, and that all other data should be summarily ignored. This is safer, leads to less encouragement to spammers and also reflects a consistent user experience -- if the data can't be included on the selfsame page, for whatever reason, point to a location where the data *does* exist (like the venue hcards on Upcoming). Communities can choose to parse hidden or concealed microformats as they like -- in smaller, closed cases, this might even make sense. But in terms of best practice or practice likely to be embraced by safety-aware tools like browsers, expect that visible data will take precedence. For now, though, we'll have to wait to see what support really looks like, and what hidden dangers may lie in wait given their decisions. Chris On 1/13/07, Andy Mabbett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, John Allsopp <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes >> **Why** is it considered harmful to hide elements? > >I think the fate of the meta element (unused by any search engine) Google uses <meta name="Description" [...] > -- Andy Mabbett <http://www.pigsonthewing.org.uk/uFsig/> _______________________________________________ microformats-discuss mailing list microformats-discuss@microformats.org http://microformats.org/mailman/listinfo/microformats-discuss
-- Chris Messina Citizen Provocateur & Open Source Ambassador-at-Large Work: http://citizenagency.com Blog: http://factoryjoe.com/blog Cell: 412 225-1051 Skype: factoryjoe This email is: [ ] bloggable [X] ask first [ ] private _______________________________________________ microformats-discuss mailing list microformats-discuss@microformats.org http://microformats.org/mailman/listinfo/microformats-discuss