Microcontent

<h2 id="original-meaning">Original meaning</h2>
<p>The original meaning of microcontent is by usability adviser Jakob Nielsen, who in a 1998 article<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:1" href="#fn:1"><sup>1</sup></a> referred to Microcontent as short content, like headlines, which need to be immediately clear and inviting to a reader, and which still make sense when removed from their original context. For instance, on a search engine result page, the article headline may be displayed with only a short snippet but not the full article. "Microcontent should be an ultra-short abstract of its associated macrocontent," Nielsen said. He discourages traditional newspaper headline techniques, such as <a href="/facts/Pun/97K1L3yE">puns</a>, teasers and other wordplay, which are more effective when the full story is already visible. He views the first word or two of each headline as extremely important to readers scanning a page.
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<h2 id="other-meanings">Other meanings</h2>
<p>The second meaning of the term has been defined by <a href="/facts/Blog/bb6awu2X">blogger</a> <a href="/facts/Anil_Dash/Mx68Ca00">Anil Dash</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a> in 2002:
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"Today, microcontent is being used as a more general term indicating content that conveys one primary idea or concept, is accessible through a single definitive URL or permalink, and is appropriately written and formatted for presentation in email clients, web browsers, or on handheld devices as needed. A day's weather forcast [<i><a href="/facts/Sic/qB9MUUWF">sic</a></i>], the arrival and departure times for an airplane flight, an abstract from a long publication, or a single instant message can all be examples of microcontent."
<p>In the years of the booming <a href="/facts/Blogosphere/P2h2eVH3">blogosphere</a> the term became important and useful to describe the emerging new content structures that were enabled by new technologies (like <a href="/facts/Trackback/WbD4ztVE">trackbacks</a>, <a href="/facts/Ping_(blogging)/Us4p99Lz">pings</a> and increasingly <a href="/facts/RSS_(file_format)/WBAWrkdj">RSS</a>), new types of <a href="/facts/Content_management_system/CCk4vIxV">CMS</a>-software and -interfaces (like <a href="/facts/Blogs/bb6awu2X">blogs</a> and <a href="/facts/Wiki/uCKCEzqb">wikis</a>), and not least by new socio-cultural practices (people creating, bringing into circulation and re-using/re-mixing microchunks of content).
</p><p>Microcontent could be other forms of media like an <a href="/facts/Image/fY9DudpT">image</a>, <a href="/facts/Sound/DlKXlPuF">audio</a>, <a href="/facts/Video/F1AV8ben">video</a>, a <a href="/facts/Uniform_Resource_Locator/pPD5g7Wq">URL</a> (<a href="/facts/Hyperlink/LqNsa84e">hyperlink</a>), <a href="/facts/Metadata/qt35z79C">Metadata</a> like author, title, etc., the subject line of an <a href="/facts/Email/6pD9GLtI">email</a>, an item in an RSS feed.
In 1998, Jakob Nielsen offered tips<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a> on how to write usable microcontent.
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<h2 id="further-reading">Further reading</h2>
<p>A sum-up of the discussion (with links to other definitions) and the implications for web-based learning can be found in the research paper "On Microcontent and Microlearning" (2006; link to online version).<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a>
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<h2 id="see-also">See also</h2>
<ul><li><a href="/facts/Microformats/NCueM8H6">Microformats</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Microlearning/PUvUuE3F">Microlearning</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Microlecture/Xmhq5Y97">Microlecture</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Web_2.0/mn8W4Xnu">Web 2.0</a></li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1"><p>Microcontent: How to Write Headlines, Page Titles, and Subject Lines <a href="http://www.useit.com/alertbox/980906.html" target="_blank">http://www.useit.com/alertbox/980906.html</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:2"><p>magazine: Introducing the Microcontent Client Archived 2006-04-22 at the Wayback Machine <a href="http://www.anildash.com/magazine/2002/11/introducing_the.html" target="_blank">http://www.anildash.com/magazine/2002/11/introducing_the.html</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:3"><p>"Microcontent: Headlines and Subject Lines (Alertbox)". Archived from the original on 2012-08-25. Retrieved 2006-09-22. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120825023015/http://www.useit.com/alertbox/980906.html" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20120825023015/http://www.useit.com/alertbox/980906.html</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:4"><p>On Microcontent and Microlearning <a href="https://www.scribd.com/doc/12389/On-Micromedia-Microlearning" target="_blank">https://www.scribd.com/doc/12389/On-Micromedia-Microlearning</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
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Microcontent open-in-new

Microcontent