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With all the new HTML tags that are coming out, it’s easy to overlook some
of the greatest tools in our arsenal of HTML tricks. There are still a few
HTML goodies lying around that’ll help you keep your pages more up to
date, make them easier to find, and even stop them from becoming framed.
What’s more, some of these tags have been with us since the first Web
browsers were released.
META tags can be very useful for Web developers. They can be used to
identify the creator of the page, what HTML specs the page follows, the
keywords and description of the page, and the refresh parameter (which can
be used to cause the page to reload itself, or to load another page). And
these are just a few of the common uses!
First, there are two types of META tags: HTTP-EQUIV and META tags
with a NAME attribute.
HTTP-EQUIV
META HTTP-EQUIV tags are the equivalent of HTTP headers. To
understand what headers are, you need to know a little about what actually
goes on when you use your Web browser to request a document from a Web
server. When you click on a link for a page, the Web server receives your
browser's request via HTTP. Once the Web server has made sure that the page
you’ve requested is indeed there, it generates an HTTP response. The
initial data in that response is called the "HTTP header block."
The header tells the Web browser information which may be useful for
displaying this particular document
Back to META tags. Just like normal headers, META HTTP-EQUIV tags usually
control or direct the actions of Web browsers, and are used to further
refine the information which is provided by the actual headers. HTTP-EQUIV
tags are designed to affect the Web browser in the same manner as normal
headers. Certain Web servers may translate META HTTP-EQUIV tags into actual
HTTP headers automatically so that the user’s Web browser would simply see
them as normal headers. Some Web servers, such as Apache and CERN httpd, use
a separate text file which contains meta-data. A few Web server-generated
headers, such as "Date," may not be overwritten by META tags, but
most will work just fine with a standard Web server.
NAME
META tags with a NAME attribute are used for META types which do not
correspond to normal HTTP headers. This is still a matter of disagreement
among developers, as some search engine agents (worms and robots) interpret
tags which contain the keyword attribute whether they are declared as "name"
or "http-equiv," adding fuel to the fires of confusion
On
to META Tags, Part 2
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