X

XML

Extensible Markup Language, an emerging standard for presenting information on the Internet. Unlike HTML, which simply describes how content should be displayed, XML allows developers to customize tags so that the content can be identified and described. For example, if a document contains a byline, bio, summary, and date of publication, XML tags can be created to define these.

A major advantage of XML is that it significantly improves the reader’s ability to do an advanced search. For example, if documents have been tagged with XML tags detailing author name, a reader can get a very accurate set of search results by a particular author. Without XML tags, if they did such a search they would get results relating to documents an author had written, but also any other documents that might have mentioned this author.

See also [metadata]