inter:digital strategies

Big news this afternoon as MSN announces that webmasters can now prevent MSN search results from using a site’s Open Directory Project description in search results.

Most of the big search engines currently will occasionally use Open Directory Project data in search results. Unfortunately, this means that instead of using wonderfully wordsmithed phrases (tongue in cheek!) such as "Internet Marketing and Strategy Consulting from inter:digital strategies" you might end up with just "inter:digital strategies" as your primary enticement to get a new visitor to your site.

Yuck!

Webmasters have been clamoring for a way to avoid this for years, and finally the revolution is beginning. (OK, that’s a little over the top.) At any rate, it is possible at least in one search engine.

It’s accomplished by the use of a new meta tag - and very simple to use. Simply place <meta name="msnbot" content="NOODP"> or <meta name="robots" content="NOODP"> in your head tag and wait for MSN to notice the change.

Thanks, MSN! (Credit given where it’s due.)