4 ms·

This seems backwards to me. Shouldn't the "extended" description be the one hidden from the user's title bar, not the short one?

by Xuzz 16y ago

heyrhett 16y ago
It's a little bit confusing. The "extended" description does, in fact, show up in the title bar. The short one only shows up in the google search link. The point is, imagine you're trying to get to the Airbnb website, and you're the type of user who is going to type "airbnb" (or the closest thing you can remember to that) into google. When google returns the Airbnb url, the optimal thing for them to display is "Airbnb". If they returned the extended title, it would blend in more with the other search results, and it might take a user longer to find it. The title plays an important role with the your whole customer user experience if you consider the role it plays in getting them to your page. By providing flexible search anchor tag text, you can hint at google about your service relevance, while also targeting users who are already familiar with your brand.
- thristian 16y ago
  There's two pieces of text relevant: the "extended" description that introduces the site to people who don't already know it (such as search-engine users), and the "short" description that has the site's actual branding for people who are already familiar with it. In an ideal world, the <title> element would contain the short description, for bookmarking purposes, while the OpenSearch metadata would contain the extended description for search engines. It's kind of unfortunate that it's the opposite way around.
  - Xuzz 16y ago
    Thanks for saying that much better than me.
  - drivebyacct2 16y ago
    Use user-agent or javascript to do this. Seems like a good idea. I'd much rather see "HN | Startup Title Ju..." than "Hacker News | Startu..." in my tab. Especially if I'm trying to remember which HN tab I'm trying to get back to. (edit: actually "HN | Startup Title Junk" all fits in the tab with my font config)
    - Xuzz 16y ago
      Or even "Startup Title Junk | Hacker News" -- that keeps the full title, and makes it show up right in your tab.

This seems backwards to me. Shouldn't the "extended" description be the one hidden from the user's title bar, not the short one?

by Xuzz 16y ago

This seems backwards to me. Shouldn't the "extended" description be the one hidden from the user's title bar, not the short one?

heyrhett 16y ago

It's a little bit confusing. The "extended" description does, in fact, show up in the title bar. The short one only shows up in the google search link. The point is, imagine you're trying to get to the Airbnb website, and you're the type of user who is going to type "airbnb" (or the closest thing you can remember to that) into google. When google returns the Airbnb url, the optimal thing for them to display is "Airbnb". If they returned the extended title, it would blend in more with the other search results, and it might take a user longer to find it. The title plays an important role with the your whole customer user experience if you consider the role it plays in getting them to your page. By providing flexible search anchor tag text, you can hint at google about your service relevance, while also targeting users who are already familiar with your brand.

thristian 16y ago
There's two pieces of text relevant: the "extended" description that introduces the site to people who don't already know it (such as search-engine users), and the "short" description that has the site's actual branding for people who are already familiar with it. In an ideal world, the <title> element would contain the short description, for bookmarking purposes, while the OpenSearch metadata would contain the extended description for search engines. It's kind of unfortunate that it's the opposite way around.
- Xuzz 16y ago
  Thanks for saying that much better than me.
- drivebyacct2 16y ago
  Use user-agent or javascript to do this. Seems like a good idea. I'd much rather see "HN | Startup Title Ju..." than "Hacker News | Startu..." in my tab. Especially if I'm trying to remember which HN tab I'm trying to get back to. (edit: actually "HN | Startup Title Junk" all fits in the tab with my font config)
  - Xuzz 16y ago
    Or even "Startup Title Junk | Hacker News" -- that keeps the full title, and makes it show up right in your tab.