What does SOCIALONLY do on an Open Graph image tag for Bing News?

Definition: SOCIALONLY is an attribute that Bing's structured data documentation shows on an og:image meta element. Bing says that adding it stops the Bing News crawler from displaying the image in Bing News search results on PC and mobile at the pixel size specified within the Open Graph image meta-tag.

Key facts

• Bing lists Open Graph among its supported page-level annotation specifications, while saying that its crawlers do not prefer one supported specification over another. Bing's structured data documentation describes this support.
• Without SOCIALONLY, Bing News may display an Open Graph image at the pixel size specified in the image meta-tag for Bing News results on PC and mobile.
• With SOCIALONLY, Bing says the Bing News crawler stops displaying such images at that specified pixel size in Bing News results on PC and mobile.
• The Open Graph protocol defines og:image as an image URL that should represent the object within the graph. The Open Graph specification gives that definition.
• The Open Graph specification defines og:image:width and og:image:height as the number of pixels wide and high, and gives the first tag preference when repeated values conflict.

What does SOCIALONLY change?

Bing's example keeps the property="og:image" declaration and its content URL, then adds SOCIALONLY to the same meta element:

<meta property="og:image" content="https://www.myhost.com/examplenews/example.jpg" SOCIALONLY>

The documented effect is specific to Bing News result display. The attribute tells the Bing News crawler not to display the image at the pixel size described by the Open Graph image meta-tag. Bing's wording does not describe a robots directive, an image URL block, or a rule for other search or social products. It also says that an annotation's presence alone does not determine whether Bing uses annotated content to generate a visually rich snippet.

How does it relate to the Open Graph protocol?

The Open Graph protocol says that page metadata is placed in meta tags in the page head, and identifies og:image as one of four required properties for every page object. Its image section then lists optional structured properties, including og:image:url, og:image:secure_url, og:image:type, og:image:width, og:image:height and og:image:alt.

SOCIALONLY comes from Bing's structured data documentation for its Bing News handling. The Open Graph specification supplies the image URL and its optional image properties, while Bing's example adds this attribute to the image element. Bing does not state whether the pixel size in this particular News instruction comes from og:image:width and og:image:height, from the fetched file, or from another signal. The Open Graph page does state that when a tag can have multiple values, the first tag from top to bottom is preferred during conflicts.

How can you check the markup?

Bing's URL Inspection documentation says that its Markup card shows special markup applied in a page's source code and recognizes Open Graph. Inspect the page after publishing, open the Markup card and look for the og:image element with SOCIALONLY. The same documentation says that the Live URL feature shows what Bingbot sees while downloading a page from your site, so it is the relevant check when the delivered HTML may differ from the source you expected.

The check is about the delivered element. A page template can emit the og:image URL correctly while omitting the attribute, or it can add the attribute to a different image element than the one used by the template. Bing's documented example places SOCIALONLY directly on the og:image meta element.

Related terms

• How are an Open Graph image's dimensions and format declared?
• How are structured properties assigned to the correct Open Graph image?
• Where can structured data issues be inspected in Bing Webmaster Tools?
• Does Bing prefer one structured data format over another?

FAQ

Does SOCIALONLY stop Bing from crawling the image?

Bing's structured data documentation documents a display effect in Bing News results: the crawler stops displaying the image at the specified pixel size. The documentation does not describe SOCIALONLY as a crawl block or as removal of the image URL.

Does SOCIALONLY remove the og:image property?

No change to the property or content values appears in Bing's example. The example retains the image URL and adds SOCIALONLY to the same meta element.

Where can you inspect the attribute?

Bing's URL Inspection documentation says that its Markup card recognizes Open Graph and can show markup applied in the page source. Its Live URL feature shows the HTML that Bingbot sees while downloading the page.

Sources

1. Bing Webmaster Tools, "Marking up your site: Overview", undated
2. The Open Graph protocol, undated
3. Bing Webmaster Tools, "URL inspection", undated

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