Metadata are part of the information it describes. It is impossible to have metadata without the information it points to. Standalone metadata are not possible.

Because metadata cannot stand by themselves, metadata should be stored together with the information it describes.

Example

By clicking here, you will open a text-file with the source code of IFLANET. IFLANET has created its homepage including two types of metadata. One set of metadata is the best known metadata standard: the Dublin Core. In the source code, you can recognize these metadata because the tags start with "<DC:...". Look for "<DC:Subject>" or "<DC:Description>".

Also HTML has a place to store metadata. In the source code of IFLANET you can recognize these metadata by the tags that start with "<meta name=..."

IFLANET has placed the metadata of its homepage in the source code of the home page.

The future direction of metadata is:

• experts (e.g. authors) add metadata to information
• the metadata is used by other applications (e.g. search engines, web directories) to enable readers to find relevant information

Look up IFLANET in the Open Directory Project and in Google. You will see that both Google and ODP use the <DC:Description> to describe the reference.