What is meta data? meta data lso known as data that describes other data, is organized reference material that aids in classifying and identifying characteristics of the data it describes. According to John W. Warren’s description of meta data in Zen and the Art of Meta data Maintenance, it is “both a universe and DNA.”
What is Meta Data?
What is meta data and meta data is employed in addition to document files for:
- computer files
- images
- relational data bases
- spreadsheets
- videos
- audio files
- web pages
Meta data usage on web pages has a lot of potential. The meta data includes content descriptions and keywords that are pertinent to the page’s content. Because these meta data are commonly displayed in search results, a user’s decision to visit a website may be influenced by their clarity and specificity. This information is often expressed via meta tags.
To determine the relevance of a web page, search engines look at its meta tags. Up until the late 1990s, meta tags were the primary determinant of position in a search. As search engine optimization (SEO) became increasingly popular around the end of the 1990s, many websites started stuffing their meta data with keywords to deceive search engines and give the impression that their websites are more relevant than others.
Since that time, although they are still taken into account when indexing pages, search engines have become less dependent on meta tags. Additionally, a lot of search engines work to prevent web pages from tricking their algorithms by frequently updating their ranking criteria. Google is well known for this.
Meta data can be created using both manual and automatic information processing techniques. Since the user is able to include any information they think relevant or useful for characterizing the file, manual creation is typically more precise. Automated meta data creation can be significantly simpler, typically merely presenting details like file size, file extension, creation date, and file creator.
Meta data use cases (what is meta data)
what is meta data? Meta data is produced whenever a document, file, or other information asset is modified, including when it is removed. Accurate meta data can help extend the life of current data by supporting users in finding new applications for it.
By employing terminology related to that specific thing, meta data organizes a data object. It also makes it feasible to recognize and pair items that are not similar with ones that are in order to make the most effective use of data assets. In order to choose which web content to display, search engines and browsers examine the meta data tags that are connected to an HTML document.
In order to improve interoperability and integration across various applications and information systems, meta data is expressed in a language that can be understood by both computer systems and people.
Businesses in digital publishing, engineering, finance, healthcare, and manufacturing use meta data to acquire insights about how to enhance processes or products. To protect copyright holders while allowing authenticated users access to music and films, streaming content providers, for instance, automate the management of intellectual property information so it may be stored across a variety of apps.
Due to the automation of previously manual processes for cataloging and tagging information assets, the conventional burden of managing meta data is being considerably lessened as AI technologies mature.
History and origins of meta data (what is meta data)
According to Jack E. Myers, founder of Meta data Information Partners (now The Meta data Co.), the phrase is said to have been used for the first time in 1969. In 1986, Myers applied for a trademark for the word “meta data” without any hyphens. In spite of this, references to the phrase can be found in academic works written before Myers’ assertion.
Professors David Griffel and Stuart McIntosh of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology defined meta data as “a record… of the data records” that are produced when bibliographic material about a topic is gathered from various sources in a research paper that was published in 1967. The researchers came to the conclusion that in order for a computer system to effectively analyze this data and its relation to other pertinent bits of data, a “meta-linguistic approach,” or “meta language,” is required. Griffel and McIntosh, in contrast to Myers, interpreted “meta” as a prefix to “data.”
Philip R. Bagley, an undergraduate computer science major, began working on his dissertation in 1964. In it, he made the case that the ability to “associate explicitly” to a second, connected data element—which “we might term a “meta data element”—is ultimately what allows one to “make composite data elements.” Bagley’s work—including his mention of meta data—was later published as a report under a contract with the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research in January 1969, despite the fact that his thesis had been disapproved.
