HTML:The Meta Tag

Some uses for the meta tag are listed below

• <meta name="copyright" content="Copyright Information"/>

  As the name implies this is used for putting copyright information into the HTML document. It is not clear what purpose this serves. Information in meta tags is never seen by the user - except those who choose to look at the HTML sourcecode - so it makes more sense to place copyright information some place where it is always on view. It is almost certain that search engine spiders will not assign too much importance to such hidden information since it is a great spamming tool.
• <meta http-equiv="set-cookie" content="meta-equiv-cookie=text; expires=expiry;path=text"/>
  Both Firefox and Opera interpret this meta directive and generate a cookie correctly. However, IE6 ignores the directive altogether thereby rendering it virtually useless.
  

• <meta http-equiv="refresh "content="n;url=path"/>

  Use this directive to cause the page to reloaded every n seconds. You can, optionally, specify an alternate URL to use to reload the page. All three browsers obey this directive. It is useful when serving up pages whose content is liable to change on a near continual basis - e.g. an auction site, a "cheap flights" search site etc. This is also useful to redirect the viewer to another page or a different location on the Internet.

  A word of caution: The code content="0; http://www.explainth.at" - i.e. without the url= bit will be correctly interpreted by Firefox and Opera. IE on the other hand will continually try to reload the current webpage thus obliging the user to shut it down. Needless to say such users are not liable to visit your site again!

• <meta name="robots" content="noodp">

  Use this tag to stop the Open Directory title and abstract for a website/page being used in search results. Google, Yahoo! and MSN can all use ODP descriptions in their search listings by default.

The meta tags which use the http-equiv attribute are best thought of as a technique for providing the browser with information which would otherwise have appeared in the HTTP response header sent by the server. Unfortunately, not all browsers take the trouble to interpret and act upon such directives. We have covered only a small number of meta tag options. A more comprehensive list is available here.