Fw: [uf-new] img alt content (was:hAudio implemented on Bitmunk (with onesnag))

[Paul Wilkins]

From: "Andy Mabbett" <andy at pigsonthewing.org.uk>
>>> What reasons would a publisher
>>> have to do this?
[garbage in alt attributes]
>>> If they're doing this, aren't they quite blatantly
>>> violating the HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.0 specification?
>>
>>Not necessarily.
>
> Can you give a real world example of someone publishing such "garbage"
> alt text, pertinent to microformats (and again with URLs as above),
> which does not violate the HTML specs, please?

I can.

Our website uses feature pages for our cleints to help improve their
visibility to the general public through search engines. One of the ways of
doing this is to load the page with specific keywords and phrases for our
clients.

Images for example would have "Copyright CityLife Auckland. Suite at our
Auckland hotel accommodation"

A google search for "auckland hotel accommodation" results in their feature
page being the third result.
http://www.google.co.nz/search?q=auckland+hotel+accommodation&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

In terms of the page and ensuring high visibility, this is the right thing
to do, but in terms of microformats and providing the information that's
required, using this alt information is the wrong thing to do.

As far as my boss is concerned, microformats are a tiny blip on our radar
and are not worth his time. I believe that he is wrong there, and am
steadily massaging our information so that microformats can be applied as
easily as possible when the time comes.

However, as a business we have a commitment to our clients to provide them
the best results that we can. When the time comes, microformats will need to
take such issues into account before we apply them, because they must not
reduce the effectiveness of our results. Our alt tags will contain whatever
they must to maintain their high search engine placements and anything that
interferes with that will get fallen by the wayside.

-- 
Paul Wilkins