Re: META tag question

Mary Morris (marym@finesse.com)
Tue, 28 Nov 1995 11:38:02 -0800


> > <META HTTP-EQUIV="Subject.DDS.scheme" CONTENT="Dewey Decimal System">
> > <META HTTP-EQUIV="Subject.DDS" CONTENT="004.64">
> > <META HTTP-EQUIV="Subject.SOS.scheme" CONTENT="Some other system">
> > <META HTTP-EQUIV="Subject.SOS" CONTENT="Model Trains">
>
> Why not just:
>
> <META HTTP-EQUIV="DDS" CONTENT="004.64">
> <META HTTP-EQUIV="SOS" CONTENT="Model Trains">
>
> ?
>
> Is there something significant about starting with "Subject" that I don't
> know about? (quite likely :-)

Actually yes. I am working on a book called Web Page Design: A Different
Multimedia. Since I am horrified at the state of current search
engines, I am proposing some META tag additions to most web pages
to make them easier to index.

In cases where the robot-gatherer is intellegent enough to understand
specific classification systems, I would like it to encourage the use
of them. In the case where the robot doesn't have the rights to use
the classification system (such as Dewey Decimal is a copyrighted
system) or isn't aware of the system, I would like them to be able
to identify the general nature of the information element from the
name or http-equiv definition. Parsing "search" off of the begining
of a longer string appears to be pretty simple.

I would expect to use classification systems in both the subject
and keywords defintions with a slight variation in each, thus using
a simple classification definition won't define the difference
between keywords and subject.

Since I am writing this book for publication, I can't pass out the
material for general review, but I would be interested in feedback
from a few people that are interested in reviewing the material. This
chapter should be available on Friday.

Mary