The W3C discourage the use of meta refresh, since it does not communicate any information about either the original or new resource, to the browser (or search engine). The W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (7.4) discourage the creation of auto-refreshing pages, since most web browsers do not allow the user to disable or control the refresh rate. Some articles that they have written on the issue include W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (1.0): Ensure user control of time-sensitive content changes, Use standard redirects: don't break the back button! and Core Techniques for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 section 7.