can I add japanese characters to meta keywords?

[Steve]

Are there any web crawlers that use Japanese characters in their searching?
I want to be sure that web searchers using Japanese language PCs find my
site. Can I copy and paste Japanese characters into my page's meta info, or
should I just stick to english, and "our" alphabet?

In notepad, my pasted Japanese characters look like this...
ホンダ600 のクーペ

Does anything recognize this?

 

[David Dorward]

Are there any web crawlers that use Japanese characters in their
searching?

Presumably. They certainly show up in search results.

I want to be sure that web searchers using Japanese language
PCs find my site. Can I copy and paste Japanese characters into my page's
meta info, or should I just stick to english, and "our" alphabet?

Meta data is largely irrelevant, its the actual content of the page that
counts there days.

In notepad, my pasted Japanese characters look like this...
ホンダ600 のクーペ

Does anything recognize this?

Its encoding the characters as numerical references[1]. I suggest getting a
an editor that can understand the character encoding used for Japanese
characters (i.e. Shift_JIS or a UTF-something). Of course you will need to
make sure that your webserver is configured to serve the page with the
appropriate content type.


[1] I don't know the technical term, I've never had cause to use them.

 

[Andreas Prilop]

I suggest getting a
an editor that can understand the character encoding used for Japanese
characters (i.e. Shift_JIS or a UTF-something).

That's not necessary. AllTheWeb, AltaVista, Google understand
expressions (numeric character references in decimal form).
But since <meta keywords> are ignored by most, if not all, search
engines, we don't need to bother.

 

[DU]

Steve wrote:




Presumably. They certainly show up in search results.




Meta data is largely irrelevant, its the actual content of the page that
counts there days.

I have no idea on this opinion but I would nevertheless recommend, suggest:

<meta http-equiv="Keywords" lang="ja"
content="ホンダ600 のクーペ
(...)">
if these characters represent relevant keyword for an indexing web
crawler or robot... This is what HTML 4.01 TR recommends. <shrug>

If the html editor can save the japanese characters, then there would be
no need to use character references here.

In notepad, my pasted Japanese characters look like this...
ホンダ600 のクーペ

Does anything recognize this?

Its encoding the characters as numerical references[1]. I suggest getting a
an editor that can understand the character encoding used for Japanese
characters (i.e. Shift_JIS or a UTF-something). Of course you will need to
make sure that your webserver is configured to serve the page with the
appropriate content type.


[1] I don't know the technical term, I've never had cause to use them.

If I am not wrong,
&quot; is a "character entity reference"
while
" is a "decimal character reference"
while
&x22; is an "hexadecimal character reference".
They respectively all represent the double quote sign.

DU

 

[Steve]

Then, what is the point of meta keywords anyway? Did search engines once
use them, but no more? Do they serve no practical function these days?

 

[David Dorward]

That's not necessary. AllTheWeb, AltaVista, Google understand
expressions (numeric character references in decimal form).

Yes - but its a lot easier to edit your pages if you can see the character

 

[Steve R.]

Steve wrote in message ...

Are there any web crawlers that use Japanese characters in their searching?

Why don't you 'copy 'n paste' some Japanese characters into the search box of
a *popular* search engine and see what results you get ?

That would seem to be the easiest way, rather than relying on answers from
*us*, as *we* can't agree on much these days. Hence the lively group :~)

Steve :~)

 

[David Dorward]

Please direct your attention to
http://www.allmyfaqs.com/faq.pl?Include_one_file_in_another

Then, what is the point of meta keywords anyway? Did search engines once
use them, but no more? Do they serve no practical function these days?

Due to the amount of abuse, most public search engines ignore them. They are
useful for private use though, such as a site specific internal search
engine.

 

[DU]

Are there any web crawlers that use Japanese characters in their searching?
I want to be sure that web searchers using Japanese language PCs find my
site. Can I copy and paste Japanese characters into my page's meta info, or
should I just stick to english, and "our" alphabet?

In notepad, my pasted Japanese characters look like this...
ホンダ600 のクーペ

Does anything recognize this?

For international issues, I suggest you have a good look at

META and search engines
http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/global.html#h-7.4.4.2

B.4 Notes on helping search engines index your Web site
http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/appendix/notes.html#recs

B.4.1 Search robots
Robots and the META element

If your site has translated versions, then coding accordingly the <link>
element e.g.:
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="path/filename.html"
hreflang="??" lang="??" title="...">
will help your site visibility and proper indexing by robots. And even
if your site does not have translated versions, using the <link> is a
recommendable thing to do:

W3C Quality Assurance Tip:
Use <link>s in your document
http://www.w3.org/QA/Tips/use-links

WATS.ca Web Accessibility Testing and Services:
The Missing <link> in the World Wide Web
http://www.wats.ca/articles/missinglink/49

I link LINK, and you should, too.
Why should you use LINK?
http://www.bauser.com/websnob/html4/link.html

The 'link'-Element in (X)HTML
http://www.subotnik.net/html/link.html.en
(The browser support section is incomplete and outdated as I know more
browsers or browser versions now render site navigation toolbar)

DU

 

[Steve R.]

David Dorward wrote in message ...
<http://www.google.co.jp/search?q=%E5%BA%83%E5%91%8A%E6%8E%B2%E8%BC%89%E3%81%
AB%E3%81%A4%E3%81%84%E3%81%A6&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=ja&btnG=Google+%E6%A4%9C%E
7%B4%A2&lr=>

How do you get those long URLs not to word-wrap please ?

I've tried it on other newsgroups using the < and > tags appropriately, but
it doesn't work for me.

Just checked in my outbox before sending and it's not working now.

There's gotta be a secret :~)

Steve.

 

[David Dorward]

David Dorward wrote in message ...
<http://www.google.co.jp/search?q=%E5%BA%83%E5%91%8A%E6%8E%B2%E8%BC%89%E3%81%
AB%E3%81%A4%E3%81%84%E3%81%A6&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=ja&btnG=Google+%E6%A4%9C%E
7%B4%A2&lr=>

How do you get those long URLs not to word-wrap please ?

By not having any characters that my news client recognises as wrapable in
them (and horribly abusing the 80 column rule).

 

[Andreas Prilop]

I have no idea on this opinion but I would nevertheless recommend, suggest:
<meta http-equiv="Keywords" lang="ja"

No, you should have
<html lang="ja">
...
<meta name="keywords" content="...">

I repeat that <meta keywords> are ignored by search engines.

 

[David Dorward]

No, you should have
<html lang="ja">
...
<meta name="keywords" content="...">

Only if the main language for the document is ja. Otherwise you should have
something like:

<html lang="en">
....
<meta ... lang="ja">

 

[Andreas Prilop]

Then, what is the point of meta keywords anyway?
Pointless.

Did search engines once use them, but no more?
Yes.

Do they serve no practical function these days?

<http://search.msn.com/> was said to index <meta keywords>:
<http://groups.google.com/groups?th=2ca4e7c1d494cab9>
But I'm afraid that's no longer true.

 

[Toby A Inkster]

<meta http-equiv="Keywords" lang="ja"

Try 'name' instead of 'http-equiv'.

 

[Mark Parnell]

Sometime around Tue, 09 Dec 2003 19:52:08 +0000, David Dorward is reported
to have stated:

Please direct your attention to
http://www.allmyfaqs.com/faq.pl?Include_one_file_in_another

I think David meant
http://www.allmyfaqs.com/faq.pl?How_to_post

 

[David Dorward]

I think David meant
http://www.allmyfaqs.com/faq.pl?How_to_post

Argh. Bookmarks. Too. Close. To. Each. Other.

Thanks Mark.