[thelist] Special Characters & Meta Tags

[Mark Howells]

Searching for European characters such as ä, ö and ü in google.com  
(for example) will also return words containing the incorrectly  
spelled English variations, and the correctly adapted variations.  
Searching for
Zürich will also find Zurich and Zuerich. I'd use the correct  
spelling with the appropriate special characters wherever possible,  
and the recognized alternative spelling where the original isn't  
possible. Localized search engines in countries where foreign  
characters are a regular part of everyday life (on- and offline) may  
well differentiate between the two forms, but I'd imagine that most  
will be intelligent enough to recognize and match all possibilities.

Mark Howells
- www.permanenttourist.ch
- www.flickr.com/photos/mhowells/