cite Attribute

Where to use the cite Attribute

• As Type URI:
  cite is declared on the elements: blockquote, ins, del, q

Description

The cite attribute is used to specify the URI from which a quotation has been taken (for the q or blockquote elements) or the URI which describes the reason for the insertion or deletion (for the ins or del).

Currently there are no browsers of which I am aware that recognise the cite attribute and present the user with an actual link to the URI. Unless something is done by the author (for example including JavaScript to find the cite attributes and explicitly create links to the URIs) there is no easy way for someone viewing the page to even know the reference is there. It is probably best to acknowledge your source using a cite element in combination with a hyperlink (but include the cite attribute as well to explicitly link that quote to that URI - as far as search engines are concerned, for example). The JavaScript method is a solution, of course, but you can never guarantee that viewers of your page will have a compatible version of JavaScript installed and enabled. Your quoted source may also insist on a conventional hyperlink as their citation.

Relative URIs in cite attributes are resolved with respect to the current document's base URI (see the base element).

Note: In Firefox, at least, you can right-click while hovering over the quotation and select Properties - this will give you the cited URI as the quote Info. However, there is no easy way of knowing which bits of text are quotations in the first place!