rel=" " types in HTML

[tricker]

Hi All,

as i have seen on the internet most of the sites have
<a href="#" rel=""> tag in their code. So i just wanted to know

- what is the rel="" stands for?
- what is the role of rel types in html?
- and how many types of rel is supported?

is it good for SEO point or it comes in W3c standards..

any pointer or help for the same is higly appriciable..

Thanks,
Tricker Baron

[Twey]

- what is the rel="" stands for?

"Relationship."

- what is the role of rel types in html?

They specify a relationship between the current page and the linked one. They're also used in unobtrusive scripts quite often (usually incorrectly).

- and how many types of rel is supported?

The value is arbitrary.

is it good for SEO point or it comes in W3c standards..

It's a standard attribute, as described in section 12.3 of the HTML4 standard.

[tricker]

thanks Twey for your prompt reply..

As i have seen some tags sites generally they are using <a href="@" rel="exteranal">anchor text</a>

- I just want to know the behavior of search engine spider with this kind of
hyperlinks?

- what is the purpose of this rel="exteranal" for the same?

Thanks
Tricker Baron

[Twey]

Exteranal? Sounds very... uh... medical.

If you meant "external," I suspect that this value is used to tell robots (including search engines) that this link leaves the site, and to visit all the "internal" links before moving on.

[tricker]

Thanks alot Twey !!

one more question and last one

In these days as i have seen on the web tags sites are increases rapidly..
if u noticed the same. and all the tags sites are selling the links as they have high google PR

why don't the search engine panelize them for putting links more than extend in a page?

any idea !!

Thanks,
Tricker Baron

[Twey]

I believe they do -- link pages rarely make it to the top of Google (although RSS feeds do often seem to, strangely).