[microformats-discuss] hOffer

[Tantek Ç elik]

On 8/27/05 9:47 AM, "trevor at junkstream.com" <trevor at junkstream.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> I wanted to see if any work has been done on a microformat for
> describing offers (e.g. For Sale, Wanted). New to the list, but haven't
> come across anything in this area.
> 
> Here's the basic problem: offer metadata (e.g. Title, Description,
> Price, Contact Info) is typically stored in non-semantic markup and
> moved around in proprietary feed formats. Commerce is becoming more
> decentralized, so an open standard for simple distributed offers would
> be increasingly valuable.

Makes sense.

> Much of the work done on hCard and hReview could probably be reused,
> with a minimal number of new elements. If there's sufficient interest,
> I can put together an examples page to get things started.
> 
> Thoughts?

I think Rohit probably has some thoughts on this, given his background.

I think this is worthy of starting an examples page.  There's tons of
examples on craigslist and ebay.  With such an "hOffer" microformat, you
could theoretically build a distributed version of those sites, where people
simply publish what they have for sale or what they want, and some spidering
engine matches them up, lets you query them etc.

I wonder how examples for "for sale" vs. "wanted" offers will differ in
terms of their implicit schema.  I'd expect to see a lot of overlap.

Thanks,

Tantek