[microformats-discuss] Developer Adoption

[Chris Messina]

On 7/15/05, Carl Beeth <carl.beeth at gmail.com> wrote:
> >  I am trying to imagine that... but what does the browser *DO* with the
> > microformat once it finds it?  Hands it over to the user's calendar app?
> > Adds a button next to it, ala greasemonkey?  I am trying to get a firm
> > understanding of the user-space tools for microformats.
> 
> The first thing the browser needs to do is make the user aware that
> it's there, maybe by displaying a little icon next to the cursor on
> hover. The browser can then give the user a CHOICE of actions on right
> click. In the case of a hcard they COULD be:
> - Compose a new mail
> - Add it to you address book
> - Map the location
> - Dial the number
> - Display the local time
> - Forward as vCard

That's only the beginning, really. Imagine a webpage offering you the
kind of rich interaction that your desktop gives you (drag n' drop,
more powerful contextual menus, interapp functionality, etc). For an
example of a rich user experience on a webpage, check out Panic's
shopping cart (http://panic.com/goods/) and then imagine being able to
have that interaction on *any* webpage on any arbitrary piece of data
that's been marked up as a microformat (in this example, an equivalent
would be to drag an hCal event into iCal).

All of this can be done once the browser wisens up to microformats.
And as Ryan said (paraphrasing me, no less
(http://theryanking.com/blog/archives/2005/06/29/yahoo-my-web-20/#comment-512)),
just imagine if someone builds that browser. ;)

Chris