– is easy to deconstruct. "Meta" signals that it's a meta tag, an HTML string that instructs a Web page to provide its host with very specific information or to carry out a certain function. The string http-equiv="Refresh" directs the browser to reload the search engine's results or homepage. The tag content="300" tells the browser to wait 300 seconds – 5 minutes – before refreshing the page. <p>Sng together, the meta tags tell the browser to refresh AltaVista and Lycos at five-minute intervals until you close the window or type in another URL. The page will automatically reload even if the browser window is hidden or you are using other apps. Should you slump over dead at the computer, the pages will continue to refresh.</p>
Shat's the big deal? Each refreshed page contains a new banner ad, increasing the number of ad impressions AltaVista and Lycos can claim to advertisers, even when the banner is served to an unwatched computer screen.</p>
Treloaded page also counts as an additional page view, potentially raising traffic numbers in the closely watched Media Metrix rankings. At <em>d's</emuest, rival search engine Google ran tests that showed adding Refresh 300 tags to its site would give the appearance of about an 18 percent increase in traffic. "It's enough to skew Media Metrix rankings," says Google founder Larry Page. "It affects page-view counts and market share claims."</p>
Bdes AltaVista and Lycos, Excite and Northern Light are the only other major search engines that feature refresh tags, but these are set to reload after 30 minutes, rather than 5. Northern Light doesn't serve third-party ads.</p>
AVista would not comment on the practice of automatically refreshing pages. However, Lycos confirms that its site reloads every five minutes, and explains that this allows users to get updated information from Lycos' news catalog, which the company says is rebuilt at five-minute intervals. "If a query had a news-related response, you'd get timely information," says Lycos spokesman Brian Payea.</p>
Bsome at Lycos consider the practice an embarrassment. "There's a lot of pressure to increase page views, and this is just one of the ways they're trying to do it," says a Lycos employee. "It's pretty cheesy." And rivals say it's easy to add a line of code that refreshes only news-related responses, rather than every search and results page. In any event, Web advertisers might do well to learn what online consumers already have: Read the fine print.</p>
<str READ</st>
<a hping the Optical Switch</a>>
The Hit Charade </p>
<a hDr. Bob</a>>
<a hntures in Mind Control</a>>
<a hNew Pod People</a>>
<a hle</a>>
<a hon Watch</a>>
<a hCPU Cure</a>>
<a h of Truth</a>>
<a hot a Crook</a>>
<a hData</a>>
