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The Canonical Link Relation
draft-ohye-canonical-link-relation-04

The information below is for an old version of the document.
Document Type
This is an older version of an Internet-Draft that was ultimately published as RFC 6596.
Authors Maile Ohye , Joachim Kupke
Last updated 2012-01-05 (Latest revision 2011-10-14)
RFC stream Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
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Reviews
Stream WG state (None)
Document shepherd (None)
IESG IESG state Became RFC 6596 (Informational)
Consensus boilerplate Unknown
Telechat date (None)
Needs a YES.
Responsible AD Peter Saint-Andre
Send notices to maileohye@gmail.com, joachim@kupke.za.net, draft-ohye-canonical-link-relation@tools.ietf.org
draft-ohye-canonical-link-relation-04
Network Working Group                                            M. Ohye
Internet-Draft                                                  J. Kupke
Intended status: Informational                          October 14, 2011
Expires: April 16, 2012

                      The Canonical Link Relation
                 draft-ohye-canonical-link-relation-04

Abstract

   [RFC5988] specified a way to define relationships between links on
   the web.  This document describes a new type of such relationship,
   "canonical," which designates the preferred URI from a set of
   identical or vastly similar ones.

Editorial Note (To be removed by RFC Editor)

   Distribution of this document is unlimited.  Comments should be sent
   to the IETF Apps-Discuss mailing list (see
   <https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/apps-discuss>).

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on April 16, 2012.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2011 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents

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   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

1.  Introduction

   The canonical link relation specifies the preferred URI from a set of
   URIs that return identical or vastly similar content, making it
   possible for references to the context URI to be updated to reference
   the target URI.

   The most common application of the canonical link relation includes
   specifying the preferred version of a URI from duplicate content
   pages created with the addition of parameters (e.g. session IDs,
   tracking IDs, category, or sort information).

2.  Notational Conventions

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].

3.  The Canonical Link Relation

   The canonical (target) URI MUST identify content that duplicates, is
   extremely similar, or is a superset of the content at the context
   (referring) URI.  Authors who declare the canonical link relation
   ought to anticipate that applications such as search engines can:

   o  Index content only from the canonical target (i.e. content from
      the context URIs will be likely disregarded as duplicative)

   o  Consolidate URI properties, such as link popularity, to the
      canonical

   o  Display the canonical target as the representative URI

   A resource SHOULD NOT specify more than one canonical link relation.

   The target/canonical URI MAY:

   o  Specify a relative URI (see [RFC3986] Section 4.2)

   o  Be self-referential (context URI identical to target URI)

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   o  Exist on a different hostname or domain

   o  Have different scheme names, such as "http" to "https," or
      "gopher" to "ftp"

   o  Be a superset of the content of the context URI

      *  For example, "page1" of a multi-page article may specify the
         canonical target as the "view-all" URI because "view-all" is a
         superset of page1's content.  However, "page2" SHOULD NOT
         designate "page1" as the canonical because the content of page1
         is not inclusive of page2.

   o  Be the source URI of a temporary redirect.  For HTTP, this refers
      to status codes 302, 303, or 307 (Sections 10.3.3, 10.3.4, and
      10.3.8, respectively, of [RFC2616]).

   The target/canonical URI SHOULD NOT designate:

   o  The source URI of a permanent redirect (for HTTP, this refers to
      300 and 301 response codes, defined in Sections 10.3.1 and 10.3.2
      of [RFC2616])

   o  A URI that also specifies a canonical link relation to a URI other
      than itself

   o  A URI that returns an error code, such as 4xx response in HTTP
      (Section 10.4 of [RFC2616])

   o  The first page of a multi-page article or multi-page listing of
      items (since the first page is not a duplicate or a superset of
      the context URI).  For example, page2 and page3 of an article
      SHOULD NOT specify page1 as the canonical.

4.  Examples

   The following example illustrates:

   o  Three URIs that serve nearly the exact same content

   o  One URI which is the canonical or "preferred version"

   o  Two URIs with additional query parameters, making them the non-
      preferred version of the content (duplicates).  The canonical link
      relation is therefore specified on these duplicates.

   If the preferred version of a URI and its content exists at:
   http://www.example.com/page.php?item=purse

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   Then duplicate content URIs such as:
   http://www.example.com/page.php?item=purse&category=bags
   http://www.example.com/page.php?item=purse&category=bags&sid=1234

   may designate the canonical link relation in HTML as specified in
   [REC-html401-19991224]:
   <link rel="canonical"
           href="http://www.example.com/page.php?item=purse">

   or as a relative URI:
   <link rel="canonical" href="page.php?item=purse">

   or alternatively, in the HTTP header field as specified in Section 5
   of [RFC5988]:
   Link: <http://www.example.com/page.php?item=purse>; rel="canonical"

   This signals to automated programs, such as search engines, that
   these are duplicates of the canonical URI:
   http://www.example.com/page.php?item=purse.

   Automated programs may then select the canonical value as the display
   URI (such as in search results), and additional URI properties such
   as indexing and ranking signals, can be transferred as well.

5.  Recommendations

   Before adding the canonical link relation, verification of the
   following is recommended:

   1.  The content of the context URI is identical with, similar to, or
       a subset of the content of the canonical.

   2.  For HTTP, Permanent HTTP redirects (Section 10.3.2 of [RFC2616]),
       the traditional strong indicator that a URI's content has been
       permanently moved, could not be implemented in place of the
       canonical link relation.

   3.  In the case where the canonical target is a superset of content
       from the context URI (e.g. page1 or page2 to view-all), that the
       user experience is strongly taken into consideration, both in
       regard to possible increased load time and potential complexity
       in navigation.

6.  IANA Considerations

   IANA is asked to register the Canonical Link Relation below as per
   [RFC5988].

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   Relation Name:

      CANONICAL

   Description:

      Designates the preferred version of a resource (the URI and its
      contents).

   Reference:

      This specification.

   Notes:

      None.

   Application Data:

      None.

7.  Security Considerations

   When a site is compromised, the canonical link relation can be
   implemented with malicious intent to designate the attacker's URI as
   the preferred version of the content.  While this technique is
   largely unnoticeable to humans, automated programs may cluster the
   compromised resource as duplicative of the attacker's designated
   canonical, transferring properties such as link popularity away from
   the resource to the attacker's URI.

8.  Internationalisation Considerations

   In designating a canonical URI, please see [RFC3986] for information
   on URI encoding.

9.  Normative References

   [REC-html401-19991224]  Le Hors, A., Raggett, D., and I. Jacobs,
                           "HTML 4.01 Specification", W3C
                           Recommendation REC-html401-19991224,
                           December 1999, <http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/
                           REC-html401-19991224>.

                           Latest version available at
                           <http://www.w3.org/TR/html401>.

   [RFC2119]               Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to

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                           Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14,
                           RFC 2119, March 1997.

   [RFC2616]               Fielding, R., Gettys, J., Mogul, J., Frystyk,
                           H., Masinter, L., Leach, P., and T. Berners-
                           Lee, "Hypertext Transfer Protocol --
                           HTTP/1.1", RFC 2616, June 1999.

   [RFC3986]               Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L.
                           Masinter, "Uniform Resource Identifier (URI):
                           Generic Syntax", STD 66, RFC 3986,
                           January 2005.

   [RFC5988]               Nottingham, M., "Web Linking", RFC 5988,
                           October 2010.

Appendix A.  Implementations

   Automated programs that implement functionality with regard for the
   canonical link relation include:

   o  Google, canonical link relation HTML and HTTP header support,
      within the same domain and across domains:

      *  <http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/02/
         specify-your-canonical.html>

      *  <http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/06/
         supporting-relcanonical-http-headers.html>

      *  <http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/12/
         handling-legitimate-cross-domain.html>

   o  Yahoo, canonical link relation HTML support within the same
      domain:

      *  <http://www.ysearchblog.com/2009/02/12/
         fighting-duplication-adding-more-arrows-to-your-quiver/>

   o  Bing, canonical link relation HTML support within the same domain:

      *  <http://www.bing.com/community/site_blogs/b/webmaster/archive/
         2009/02/12/
         partnering-to-help-solve-duplicate-content-issues.aspx>

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Authors' Addresses

   Maile Ohye

   EMail: maileohye@gmail.com
   URI:   http://maileohye.com/

   Joachim Kupke

   EMail: joachim@kupke.za.net

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