rel

rel is short for "relationship" and an HTML 4.01 attribute on the a and link elements. The 'rel' attribute is used for several popular elemental microformats such as rel-nofollow, rel-license, rel-tag, and XFN. Popularity is noted as of 2005-12 per the Google study on markup use, in particular the use of link relationships, the <a> tag, and related page headers (which noted that "XFN [is] the most popular HTML metadata profile").

For more on the rel attribute and its use in microformats, see:

rel microformats

Specifications and drafts:

• XFN: rel-acquaintance, rel-contact, rel-friend, rel-me and other xfn values.
• rel-directory
• rel-enclosure
• rel-home
• rel-license
• rel-nofollow
• rel-payment
• rel-tag

See existing-rel-values for a more comprehensive list of rel values from HTML4, microformats, and other sources.

articles

Articles and other tutorials written about the "rel" attribute and microformats use of. Most recent first.

• 2008-09-09 Getting Semantic With Microformats, Part 1: rel by Emily P. Lewis

See articles for more articles on microformats in general.

see also

• rel
• existing rel values
• rel examples
• rel FAQ
• rel design pattern
• rel issues