Re: empty metadata elements

> Okay, me and my colleague Tony create a page:
> <meta name="DC.Creator" content="Jon" />
> <meta name="DC.Creator" content="Tony" />
> 
> Both of the statements made by those elements are correct. Whether it would

However, neither are particularly useful to anyone outside the authoring
organisation as the scope of the namespace within which they are defined
is unknown to the world at large.  <link rel="made" href="mailto:... at
least tended towards a global namespace.

> <meta /> is unfortunately a very loose syntax (<link /> is better, but still
> lacking in comparison to some equivalents). I'm inclined to think that

My own theory is that <meta name=... was invented to allow the metadata from
Word documents to be dumped into HTML without having to worry about
mapping it onto existing elements and link types.  Of course, using non-link
names with local scope does have commercial advantages as most organisations
don't want a lot of feedback, and want that which arrives to come in through
the PR department.  It also removes a source of addresses for spammer CDs.

Received on Tuesday, 11 February 2003 16:33:02 UTC