NoScript Tags

The NoScript tag is rarely used these days.

It was used by developers when using JavaScript, Java, Flash, AJAX or similar, and was targeted at users whose browsers did not support dynamic content hosted in these forms, or whose JavaScript or Flash was turned off. Back in the day, you may remember seeing notices such as “Your browser is unable to read JavaScript” or “Javascript should be enabled in your browser” when trying to load a website: This was NoScript tag in action. These days, you’ll only ever really see a NoScript if you have JavaScript turned off. But, if you have JavaScript turned off, you’ll likely be able to see so little of a web page that the NoScript will be the least of your worries!

Sites also used text within a NoScript tag to give an accurate description or transcript of the contents contained inside the non-HTML based program. This helped to inform a user of the contents of the video, while also giving the same information to search engines. For instance, a NoScript might read “video showing a dog chasing a squirrel”.

In a nutshell, it did for video content and other dynamic content what the alt tag does for images, but is now more or less redundant.