The use of META
elements hasn’t
been plain sailing
Slide 54
The use of META
elements hasn’t
been plain sailing
many web designers don’t know how to
use them properly
leading to inconsistent use
dark data
Slide 55
Many misunderstand
the purpose
I’m looking at you, web marketeers
and you, so-called SEO experts
Slide 56
Many misunderstand
the purpose
META tags aren’t
for search engines
META tags are used by search engines
Slide 57
Many misunderstand
the purpose
META tags aren’t
for search engines
META tags are used by search engines
META tags are for describing the data
Slide 58
Many misunderstand
the purpose
to provide a means to discover that
the data set exists and how it might be
obtained or accessed; and
to document the content,
quality, and features of a data
set, indicating its fitness for use
Slide 59
Rule #2
The more you lie,
the less you can be
trusted and the
less valuable your
info becomes.
Slide 60
Rule #2
This is something
Brian Cant taught us.
Slide 61
Rule #3
The fewer distinct
consumers, the
less valuable the
metadata becomes
over time.
Slide 62
Rule #3
Only search engines really used
META keywords, descriptions
Authors began writing targeted
for search engines
“how do I get well ranked?”
vs.
“how do I describe this data?”
Slide 63
Rule #3
Search engines can no longer
trust keywords, descriptions
Abuse has spoiled it for everyone
Brian Cant never said anything about that.
Slide 64
What have we
learned so far?
Slide 65
What have we
learned so far?
Sharing is good - the web is for sharing
Metadata isn’t new IRL or on the web
HTML gives us ways to express metadata
It only works if we tell the truth
Slide 66
We need thems
robots on our side
Part 2:
Slide 67
or against us
robots are either with us
Slide 68
so we’d better co-operate
we don’t want them against us
Slide 69
and effort
robots can save us time
Slide 70
yay.
Slide 71
tofu robot says:
data is everywhere
Slide 72
There are lots of
idioms for data
Opening times
Event details
Addresses
Slide 73
Idioms are good
they’re not always formal
you don’t need to be
formal to be understood
Slide 74
Informal is good
but consistency is important
let’s look at why...
Slide 75
Humans are
quick to adapt
we can easily re-evaluate and adjust
we can climb stairs without
a trip to the workshop
Slide 76
Robots prefer patterns
they rely on known patterns
patterns can be formal or informal
must be consistent and repeatable
Slide 77
Humans like
patterns too
we like routine
we like repeating patterns
robots like patterns
because they are repeatable
we like patterns because
we don’t want to think
thinking is hard, uncomfortable
and inconvenient.
Slide 78
thinking
Hard
Uncomfortable
Inconvenient
Prone to error
45%
29%
4%
21%
Slide 79
So as it turns out
what’s good for thems robots
is good for us too
Slide 80
it’s not complicated
metadata is good - so we want to use it
our metadata challenge
need to embrace reusable patterns
avoid dark data
avoid specific data for any consumer
make it easy to be truthful
embrace existing idioms
reuse existing technology
Slide 81
remember this?
<span class=“name”>Drew</span>
Slide 82
remember this?
<span class=“name”>Drew</span>
avoid dark data
avoid specific data for any consumer
make it easy to be truthful
embrace existing idioms
reuse existing technology
Slide 83
remember this?
<span class=“name”>Drew</span>
avoid dark data
avoid specific data for any consumer
make it easy to be truthful
embrace existing idioms
reuse existing technology
need to embrace reusable patterns
Slide 84
microformats
just a bunch of patterns
Slide 85
names and addresses
hCard - based on VCARD
given-name
family-name
email
url
tel
title
org
street-address
locality
Slide 86
names and addresses
hCard - based on VCARD
<p class=“vcard”>
The announcement followed calls by
<span class=“org”>Apple</span>
<span class=“role”>Chief Executive</span>
<span class=“fn”>Steve Jobs</span>
earlier this year...
</p>
Slide 87
names and addresses
hCard - based on VCARD
<p class=“
vcard
”>
The announcement followed calls by
<span class=“
org
”>Apple</span>
<span class=“
role
”>Chief Executive</span>
<span class=“
fn
”>Steve Jobs</span>
earlier this year...
</p>
Slide 88
events and dates
hCalendar - based on iCAL
dtstart
dtend
location
url
description
summary
relationships
XFN
contact
acquaintance
met
co-worker
friend
colleague
neighbor
child
parent
sweetheart
crush
me
Slide 91
many more
licenses
tags
date-based feeds
directories
products
payments
geolocation
more
Slide 92
remember this?
<span class=“name”>Drew</span>
avoid dark data
avoid specific data for any consumer
make it easy to be truthful
embrace existing idioms
reuse existing technology
need to embrace reusable patterns
Slide 93
remember this?
<span class=“name”>Drew</span>
avoid dark data
avoid specific data for any consumer
make it easy to be truthful
embrace existing idioms
reuse existing technology
need to embrace reusable patterns
Slide 94
Brian Cant never
knew this
but I bet he’d be thrilled.
Slide 95
microformats are good
a humane method for using metadata on the web
easy for us to implement
readable by our robotic friends
Slide 96
Slide 97
hCard
Slide 98
Slide 99
hCalendar
Slide 100
Slide 101
Slide 102
For robot masters
http://microformats.org/wiki/parsers
http://tools.microformatic.com/
Slide 103
For humans
http://microformats.org/
Slide 104
For humans
http://oreilly.com/
Slide 105
For humans
http://microformatique.com/book/
Slide 106
What Brian Cant
Never Taught You
About Metadata.
So that’s
Thank you.
http://allinthehead.com/presentations