Re: hidden meta data and bolt on attributes

On Fri, Apr 23, 2010 at 5:20 AM, Shelley Powers <shelley.just@gmail.com>wrote:

> I don't know where these ideas originated, but meta data and "hidden"
> page data has been around for over a decade, and has successfully been
> integrated into most web pages. There is meta data that covers how the
> document is to be served, the character set,


These have been integrated into most Web pages, but they are visible
metadata since they affect the rendering of the page for all users.

microformats for calendar
> information, RDFa for covering broader semantic interests


These have been integrated into very few Web pages.


> Are these hidden meta data and bolted on attributes useful? Not long
> ago, Best Buy reported that the use of such hidden meta data and
> bolted on attributed increased traffic to the company's web site by
> 30% [2].
>

I read the article and still have no idea what Best Buy actually did.
Comments in the article say that the visible page changed dramatically when
metadata was added; if so, there is no evidence that invisible metadata is
responsible for the traffic increase.

Rob
-- 
"He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are
healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his
own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all." [Isaiah
53:5-6]