Here are the results:

                                                                                                   1
         1         2         3         4         5         6         7         8         9         0
----5----0----5----0----5----0----5----0----5----0----5----0----5----0----5----0----5----0----5----0
All of this means that the average person viewing a Google results page -- who might ... I put both
Generate custom meta tags easily by filling in the questions, then copy and paste ... the title, description
Having a meta description tag on each page may give those pages an SEO advantage ... so 150 characters
i want to know the safe length for "meta description" and "title" .... in title tag. and in the case
Ok, lets get one thing clear - Meta tags are still important for SEO. Google uses the meta description
You can set the maximum number of characters that will be used to generate your Description meta-tag.
Meta Description Tag: required. Enter a description for your Web page. A maximum of 150 characters is
Your Title and Meta Description are marketing tools first since ... for the keyword meta tag is 1000,
Description tags consist the information on seo and google tips on writing meta description tags, length,
31 Oct 2008 ... A Good Example of a Description Meta Tag:. We will use a page on a ... Description Tag
                                                                                                   1
         1         2         3         4         5         6         7         8         9         0
----5----0----5----0----5----0----5----0----5----0----5----0----5----0----5----0----5----0----5----0

1         1         1         1         1         1         1
0         1         2         3         4         5         6
0----5----0----5----0----5----0----5----0----5----0----5----0
 descriptions in short of in the description meta tag, ...
scription and keyword tags should be unique to the page. ...
ers (including spaces) is a good maximum length to use. ...
e of description tag maximum up to 330 ...
ion for its page descriptions, which while not directly ...
g. Longer is not necessarily better and a maximum of ...
is suggested for this Tag. You get one chance to capture ...
0, whereas scrubber.com says the max is ...
ength, limits, guidelines, suggestions, character limits, ...
Tag Tips. - Keep it to the Google Maximum of Less. ...
1         1         1         1         1         1         1
0         1         2         3         4         5         6
0----5----0----5----0----5----0----5----0----5----0----5----0

My best guess is that anything up to at least 155 characters (including spaces) will be displayed.

I recently wrote:

It is my contention that virtually no one will read anything at the foot of the page, but they will look for things there (but only things that they would expect to find, things like:

But then wondered, well what do people expect, what is “standard” for a page footer?

I expect a Copyright statement, and some links to items like Privacy, About, Contact, Disclaimer, Terms of Use and sometimes the actual contact details such as Name, Address, Post Code, Telephone number, Fax number, Email address.

I’m also not surprised to see logo, membership icons, trust icons, valid (x)html/css icons, accessibility icons, navigation links, sitemap link, search  box, home page link, page creation date, page update date, page URL, request for comment with link, etc.

Having written up (down?) what I expect in a footer, I thought a little use of google would be in order and found a very interesting article by Jeff Lash on More Than Just a Footer.  In his article he comments:

During countless usability tests, I have observed users who scroll to the bottom of the page when they are lost, only to be left helpless by the generic footer navigation.

Designers need to give as much attention to the footer design as to the other elements on the page. While simply blocking off some space for the footer might be an acceptable solution in some cases, there are many ways to take advantage of the bottom of the page.

He then goes on to suggest three inventive approaches:

 

1. An out-of-site map: where he references A Sitemap on Every Page. 
2. Rate it: a rate this button, useful for identifying most popular pages.
3. Sell it: “Bottom of the page deals” that the user is not expecting.

 

His page ends with Related Topics links.

Also worth reading is Best Website Footer Design? by Ronald Huereca.  While the article is short it is followed by many comments with links to commenters’ favourite footers.  Well worth a browse.  There is also this gem of a comment by Andy Faulkner:

If the reader has got to the bottom of the page, then it is highly likely that they read the content and therefore it is also likely that they found it worthwhile. If they found this worthwhile, then offering similar content in the footer seems like a good idea to me.

What do you expect to see, or think should be, in a footer?