A Little Less Metacrap
JereÂmy KeiÂth wrote a (typÂiÂcalÂly great) post about metacrap, the unnecceÂsarÂiÂly verÂbose and repetÂiÂtive metaÂdaÂta in the head of web docÂuÂments, that’s required for conÂtent to be more easÂiÂly shareÂable across social media. I fulÂly agree with his broad point — there’s an awful lot of crap in head 
— but there’s a flaw in his iniÂtial examÂples. It’s explained in this extract from Twitter’s GetÂting StartÂed [with Cards] Guide:
You’ll notice that TwitÂter card tags look simÂiÂlar to Open Graph tags, and that’s because they are based on the same conÂvenÂtions as the Open Graph proÂtoÂcol. If you’re already using Open Graph proÂtoÂcol to describe data on your page, it’s easy to genÂerÂate a TwitÂter card withÂout dupliÂcatÂing your tags and data.
So actuÂalÂly the metaÂdaÂta you need to cater for most social sharÂing is Open Graph, with a few extra tags just for Twitter:
<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary"> <meta name="twitter:site" content="@adactio"> <meta property="og:url" content="https://adactio.com/journal/9881"> <meta property="og:title" content="Metadata markup"> <meta property="og:description" content="So many standards to choose from."> <meta property="og:image" content="https://adactio.com/icon.png">
I mean, it’s still perÂhaps too much, and (as pointÂed out) would probÂaÂbly be best writÂten as JSON-LD in the manÂiÂfest. But there’s no redunÂdanÂcy, so is not quite as bad as paintÂed in Jeremy’s artiÂcle, even with his eleÂgant squishÂing solution.