We used MetaTag-s for multiple purposes at Med Scape. For some explanation, see Medscape Lite C M S.

Here's some detailed examples, which I wrote for a friend.

Tags from a sample article

META NAME="TitleLong" CONTENT="Angels in Our Midst - Making a Home for Homeless Women"

• this is included in VerIty Search Engine, returned in searchResults page, also gets used in Med Pulse; we obsessively wanted the regular title to be short enough to fit in browser window, while this tag gives us more freedom

META NAME="group" CONTENT="clinical"

• used by Verity in Filter for searching (news vs clinical vs patient)

META NAME="PublishDate" CONTENT="11/21/01"

• used by Verity for Filter and to show in [Search Results] page, since filemod date useless

META NAME="description" CONTENT="Dr. Roseanna Means addresses issues relevant to homeless women in Boston, which include the threat of violence, sexual abuse, and child-care responsibilities."

• standard meta tag for 3rd party search engine results, also used by Verity searchResults page, also for Cold Fusion-generated navigation pages, also for Med Pulse

META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="sexual abuse, homeless, healthcare"

• standard meta tag for 3rd party search engines, included in Verity search; not used obsessively as controlled vocabulary.

META NAME="citation" CONTENT="Medscape Infectious Diseases, 2001"

• I don't think Verity searches this, it's used mainly for Med Pulse

META NAME="ArticleTopics" CONTENT="AIDS, 6; Family Medicine, 6; Infectious Diseases, 6; Med Students, 6; Nurses, 6; Primary Care, 6; Womens Health, 6"

• Used for Med Pulse and for Cold Fusion navigation pages (each number gave a "rating" of relevance of article to that topic)

META NAME="family" CONTENT="Articles"

• Used for Med Pulse and for Cold Fusion navigation pages

We didn't use "zones" or whatever that Verity term is...

It wasn't rocket science to define keywords, but it was rather annoying given the crummy VerIty documentation (keeping track of which set of template files to modify). I think there are only 2 files to modify. Once you figure it out once, you just have to document it for your own sake, or you'll go crazy the next time you have to worry about it.

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