HTML & CSS Course
HTML & CSS
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Intermediate

Open Graph Tags

Definition

A protocol created by Facebook that allows web pages to become rich objects in a social graph. It dictates what image, title, and description appear when a link is shared on social media.

Explain Like I'm New

Have you ever pasted a link into an iMessage, WhatsApp, or Twitter, and a beautiful preview card magically appeared with a massive picture and a catchy title? That doesn't happen by accident. The developer specifically wrote Open Graph (`og:`) tags in the HTML.

Real World Example

Adding `<meta property="og:image" content="preview.jpg">` so that when a user shares your blog post on LinkedIn, a giant thumbnail of your blog cover image is displayed instead of a blank box.

Common Use Cases

  • •Social media marketing
  • •Link previews in chat applications (Slack, Discord, iMessage)

Interactive Example

Interview Questions

basic

  • Which social network originally created the Open Graph protocol?

intermediate

  • What is the equivalent protocol used specifically by Twitter?

Flash Cards

Question

Who created it?

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Answer

Facebook.

Question

Twitter's equivalent?

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Answer

Twitter Cards (`<meta name="twitter:card">`). However, if Twitter doesn't find Twitter-specific tags, it will automatically fall back and use the Open Graph tags instead.