HTML entity

Overview

An HTML entity is a combination of characters which will be displayed within an HTML browser as a single character. All HTML entities begin with "&" (ampersand) and end with ";" (semicolon). Many entities have mnemonic names (such as "&", which displays an ampersand); any possible character can be displayed as an entity by using the format "&#number;" where number is the output character's ASCII value in decimal.

Reference

• Wikipedia
• HTML 4.0 entities

Questions

• Does Google resolve html entities when indexing web pages? That is, if I spelled a word (e.g. "schmerglefrotz") entirely using html entities, would someone be able to find that page using google by typing "schmerglefrotz" (after the site had been spidered, of course)? (As a test, I will spell a completely different word using HTML entities, and try Googling it later: FRELGKLOTZ)
  • 2007-07-15 answer: Yes, it does find it (though it took several months at least before this page got indexed).

Standard ASCII in Entities

	 
!	!
"	"
#	#
$	$
%	%
&	&
'	'
(	(
)	)
*	*
+	+
,	,
-	-
.	.
/	/
0	0
1	1
2	2
3	3
4	4
5	5
6	6
7	7
8	8
9	9
:	:
;	&#59;
<	&#60;
=	&#61;
>	&#62;
?	&#63;
@	&#64;

A	A	a	a
B	B	b	b
C	C	c	c
D	D	d	d
E	E	e	e
F	F	f	f
G	G	g	g
H	H	h	h
I	I	i	i
J	J	j	j
K	K	k	k
L	L	l	l
M	M	m	m
N	N	n	n
O	O	o	o
P	P	p	p
Q	Q	q	q
R	R	r	r
S	S	s	s
T	T	t	t
U	U	u	u
V	V	v	v
W	W	w	w
X	X	x	x
Y	Y	y	y
Z	Z	z	z
[	[	{	{
\	\		|
]	]	}	}
^	^	~	~
_	_		
`	`	€	€