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Almost two years ago, in an attempt to combat the rising problem of comment spam, Google unveiled a new HTML attribute:
rel=”nofollow”
By including that attribute in hyperlinks, website administrators direct search engines not to give any credit to the linked content. The attribute is generally applied by most blog software to comment and trackback content before it is posted. This obviously minimizes the incentive for comment spamming as a means of improving a site’s PageRank status.
In the same spirit, I am now proposing a new attribute:
rel=”nsfw”
NSFW is an abbreviation often used to indicate that content is “not safe for work.” This new attribute should be applied to tags to indicate that the content is potentially “not safe for work.”
The attribute has several exciting implications for content creators and site visitors:
1. Content creators can now apply the attribute to hyperlinks. Visitors will be able to configure their browsers to warn them, or stop them, before continuing on to URIs flagged with the attribute. Additionally, search engines will be able to use the proportion of flagged links to a URI as a better means of filtering results.
2. Content creators can now apply the attribute to image tags. Visitors will be able to configure their browsers to block display of images flagged with the attribute.
3. Content creators can apply the attribute to paragraph tags, div tags, or any other block-level element. Doing so will indicate that the enclosed content is not safe for work. Visitors will be able to configure their browsers to block display of just the content enclosed by the flagged block-level element.
This isn’t about censorship. It is about making us all less likely to accidentally click on a goatse.cx link when our boss is standing behind us. It is also about making us feel more comfortable posting possibly objectionable content by giving visitors a means of easily filtering that content.
rel=”nofollow”
By including that attribute in hyperlinks, website administrators direct search engines not to give any credit to the linked content. The attribute is generally applied by most blog software to comment and trackback content before it is posted. This obviously minimizes the incentive for comment spamming as a means of improving a site’s PageRank status.
In the same spirit, I am now proposing a new attribute:
rel=”nsfw”
NSFW is an abbreviation often used to indicate that content is “not safe for work.” This new attribute should be applied to tags to indicate that the content is potentially “not safe for work.”
The attribute has several exciting implications for content creators and site visitors:
1. Content creators can now apply the attribute to hyperlinks. Visitors will be able to configure their browsers to warn them, or stop them, before continuing on to URIs flagged with the attribute. Additionally, search engines will be able to use the proportion of flagged links to a URI as a better means of filtering results.
2. Content creators can now apply the attribute to image tags. Visitors will be able to configure their browsers to block display of images flagged with the attribute.
3. Content creators can apply the attribute to paragraph tags, div tags, or any other block-level element. Doing so will indicate that the enclosed content is not safe for work. Visitors will be able to configure their browsers to block display of just the content enclosed by the flagged block-level element.
This isn’t about censorship. It is about making us all less likely to accidentally click on a goatse.cx link when our boss is standing behind us. It is also about making us feel more comfortable posting possibly objectionable content by giving visitors a means of easily filtering that content.
I support it.
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