WordPress and the Title Attribute

[pageoneresults]

Enough already! The plugin for WordPress that takes the anchor text and replicates it in the title attribute for the href should be retired to the myth graveyard immediately!

Almost every other WordPress Blog that I review uses this plugin and it FAILs! That title attribute is only to be used when the anchor text does not sufficiently describe the destination by itself. And, if that is the case, then it probably needs to be rewritten (the anchor text) so you don't have to use the title attribute.

Sure, there are plenty of uses for this advisory attribute. It's handy when you want to provide a "tool tip" (advisory information) to users on hover. It works on almost every HTML Element. And it should be used sparingly when it comes to links. In fact, the only time you would probably use it is when space is very limited and you can not sufficiently describe the destination of the link visibly, then by all means drop a title attribute on that href.

My next rant will be about those ugly hyphenated URI strings using the Title Slug. FAIL! FAIL! FAIL!

[ergophobe]

Well, I like to duplicate the anchor text in the title attribute, duplicate the alt text in the img title attribute, and then duplicate all occurrences in my meta keyword tags.

Anyway, rant on about hyphenated URI strings. I impose a strict limit of 18 hyphens in my titles.

;-)

[Receptional Andy]

The best use of the title attribute I've found is within forms where space is severely limited, but there's always extra information to convey.

As for link tooltips, what I think would be nice for those is grabbing the meta description from the target and displaying it in the title attribute.

And didn't we have the URI rant already [webmasterworld.com]? ;)