Andrew Goodman writes that metatags — those labels hidden in Web pages’ HTML that are supposed to help search engines determine what the pages are about but that have become a tool for out-of-control online marketing — are dead.
He’s probably right. As he points out, Google has managed to create the most useful search engine to date by downplaying metatags. But note that he qualifies his conclusion fairly narrowly: “Metatags as we know them today – I refer specifically to the meta keyword and meta description tags inserted into the head of an HTML document – don’t factor into this future.” This qualification is important, because, while HTML metatags have proved far too easy to abuse, the concept of meta-information — information that describes what other information is about — will only become more important as the Web continues to grow in both volume of information and complexity of available services.
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