The 'translator' meta tag
The translator meta tag is used to give credit to, and provide contact info for, the translator of a document.
Syntax
<meta name="translator" content="Firstname Lastname <user@example.com>">
or
<meta name="translator" content="Organization <http://www.example.com/>">
Description
The content value of the translator meta tag is a free form text describing the name and contact information for the person or organization responsible for the translation of a document.
The suggested form is
name + ' <' + email address | website address | telephone number + '>'
Placement
The translator meta tag is placed in the <head> section of the HTML document, just like any other meta tags.
There may be more than one translator meta tag per document.
Tip:
Use the origin meta tag to refer to the original document.
Current language and original text
It is explicitly NOT this meta tag's job to
- indicate the language of the current document; the lang global attribute should be used for that
- indicate the original document which was translated; the origin meta tag should be used for that
Example
This could be the source of http://www.example.com/document.nl.html:
<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="nl"> <head> <title>The title</title> <meta name="translator" content="Rob la Lau <https://doc.ohreally.nl/contact>"> <meta name="origin" content="http://www.example.com/document.fr.html" lang="fr"> </head> <body> … the text … </body> </html>
Use cases
- this meta tag notifies search engines that the current text is not the original text, but 'merely' a translation
- this meta tag gives credit to the translator of a page
- this meta tag can be used to notify all translators that a new version of the original text is available
- this meta tag allows readers to contact the translator about errors in the translated text
- search engines can be created/configured to find translators for a certain language
- search engines can be created/configured to find all the work of a certain translator
- etc…
Note to implementors
The content value of the translator meta tag is not translatable.
Documentation
The documentation for the translator meta tag is available at https://doc.ohreally.nl/metatag-translator.
Status
The translator meta tag has been added to the MetaExtensions registry as a proposed standard.