Dublin Core

Is anyone using this?

[phrequency]

I recently saw a site page from one of my clients that was search engine optimized. These guys used the DC. (Dublin Core) metadata. My question is: are any of the major SE's utilizing these DC meta tags at all?

My research thus far says no but if any one knows anything I'd live to hear it...

Thanks

[rcjordan]

>says no

Pretty much the same consensus here, except a reference to the Euro/German engines here [webmasterworld.com]. That was almost a year ago, and much may have changed since that post, though I'd be surprised if there was any movement towards factoring in the DC in the more recent algos.

[Xoc]

If anyone is wondering what the Dublin Core is, you can find information here: [dublincore.org ]. Basically it is a bunch of meta tags that a group meeting in Dublin Ohio agreed on. These meta tags give information about what a document means, who authored it, copyright notices, etc.

Unfortunately, almost nothing I know of actually uses them.

[jeremy goodrich]

At one point, I recall something about the academic community adopting or wanting to adopt these. But again, that doesn't have anything to do with commmercial search engines.

Right now, even the "traditional" metas are becomming less and less important, with google not using them, and fast occasionaly using them.

Northernlight and Excite will both use your meta description tag if you use them. As these are both second teir engines, it's good to place keyword rich body copy at the top of the page, so that if the meta isn't used, you still have a marketable description in the database.

[NFFC]

There is an online generator here:

[ukoln.ac.uk]

[phrequency]

So then why would a company that boasts their search engine optimization techniques add these dublin core meta tags to a site they have "supposedly" optimized?

I'm wondering if my clients have been taken, although I won't know for about a month as they are currently being submitted to SE's.

[jeremy goodrich]

Perhaps as rcjordan mentioned, it is for the European search engines. We have a forum for that, located here: [webmasterworld.com...]

I'd be willing to bet that we have the most comprehensive database of information in that area, though my personal knowledge is a bit thin in that field.

As far as an SEO firm utilizing these as a means of promotion, best bet would be to ask them why they put them there, what they believe the effectiveness of using these tags is, etc. If they say anything noteworth, I'd ask that you post it here, as we're all interested in learning new and innovative promotional techniques.

IMO, I would read around the forums here, and check out the building the killer page tutorial here: [searchengineworld.com...]

[rcjordan]

>So then why would a company that boasts their search engine optimization techniques add these dublin core meta tags to a site they have "supposedly" optimized?

In the US, it could be to gain a marketing edge, something to pitch that the competition has overlooked (and their techniques can therefore be discredited) as in "Also, WE optimize using Dublin Core technology, visit their website for more details. XYZ doesn't do that. WE leave no stone unturned." Like meta keywords, it can be made to appear to be a formidable SEO techniques and it doesn't hurt, so.....

[georged]

I have a client who uses these, so I did a bit of research on them, nothing heavy, just reading up as you do.
For SEO as we know it they're not much good. The purpose behind them is indeed academic, the idea being that if the web is to be seriously archived, it needs more than title and tags to do it. So Dublin Core is designed to suit the needs of someone like a librarian, who is very interested in archives and such like. It is not terribly good for SEO, but it doesn't hurt SEO if you know what I mean.
edited to add:
To answer the original question, I rooted around a bit in and found that the following 'engines' support it:

Ultraseek
Swish-E
Microsoft's Index Server
Blue Angel Technologies MetaStar
Verity Search 97 Information Server

Which leads me to suggest "Aaah, forget it."

[chiyo]

One of the news aggregators we use insist on 2 othese metas. The only problem with using them is the usual one.. it increases the download time! I know its small, but all these "might be useful" code snippets all add up...

[rcjordan]

>I know its small, but all these "might be useful" code snippets all add up...

I "broke the camel's back" once on my top-performing page using javascript (that's when I quickly figured out external js). AV, back in the days when it counted, punished the page severely. Some things are learned the hard way.

[phrequency]

can you explain: news aggregators

what are they?

[bill]

can you explain: news aggregators

That might be some thing like [url=my.userland.com]MyUserland[/url] that aggregates RSS and XML files. The now defunct My.Netscape was probably one of the most popular.

The RSS 1.0 format makes use of the Dublin Core. There was an interesting article on [url=www.webreference.com/authoring/languages/xml/rss/1/3.html]WebReference[/url] about this.

[Brett_Tabke]

There are many headline headline news aggregators [searchengineworld.com].

As for Dublin Core tags, I've never seen a top ranking page that used them. A quick grep of 100(cough)k results pages turned up 3 uses (two of which were from the dublin core website).