metadata/tags in KML or KML sitemaps?

[Robb S]

I understand that once I create my KML files and a KML sitemap, people
will eventually find them using Google maps and Google earth via
searches. Should I be adding metadata for search terms/tags
somewhere, or do all the keywords have to go in the description field?

[Maarten L]

Maybe this can help you: http://code.google.com/apis/kml/documentation/kmlSearch.html

[Robb S]

Not really, no, I had read that already. It looks like everything
that should be searched on should go in the description field itself,
and there are no metatags (other than "author", which isn't really
useful for this). I just wondered if I were missing something.

[Jason M]

There is a feature request/recommendation to extend KML metadata with
addtional tags and other namespaces that could benefit searches and
GIS-applications alike.
http://code.google.com/p/kml-samples/issues/detail?id=291

Likewise ExtendedData can be used to attach DublinCore or other
namespaces for other metadata to KML features but unless this is
standardized and adopted by Google then it won't be picked in their
searches.
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/earth/thread?tid=2cf4c518df2ca853&hl=en

--jason

[Robb S]

Thanks for the reply. It seems like it would be a useful feature, and
I'm a little surprised it's not there already.

[Carlos A]

Hi Robb,

It is true that all information that you need indexed and available
through searches should be placed in the Description tag. It is also
true that the best option to add metadata is using the ExtendedData
element but as you know this is not indexed by Google.

What I do when I need to add structured metadata that should be
indexed as well is formating the Description content in HTML and use
microformats or RDFa to structure the information. In this way you can
make that metadata indexable, visible and at the same time it still
keeps an structure that your applications can recognize and use. If
you don't want to make that information visible you can always play
with CSS (keeping it indexable).