The Resource Description Framework (RDF) is a general framework for how to describe any Internet resource such as a Web site and its content. An RDF description (such descriptions are often referred to as metadata, or "data about data") can include the authors of the resource, date of creation or updating, the organization of the pages on a site (the sitemap), information that describes content in terms of audience or content rating, key words for search engine data collection, subject categories, and so forth. The Resource Description Framework will make it possible for everyone to share Web site and other descriptions more easily and for software developers to build products that can use the metadata to provide better search engines and directories, to act as intelligent agents, and to give Web users more control of what they're viewing. The RDF is an application of another technology, the Extensible Markup Language (XML), and is being developed under the auspices of the World Wide Consortium (W3C).