[microformats-discuss] Microformat for blog-searchand characterizing

[Andy Skelton]

On 7/21/05, Tantek Çelik <tantek at cs.stanford.edu> wrote:
> On 7/21/05 1:46 PM, "Andy Skelton" <skeltoac at gmail.com> wrote:
> > <meta name='botd:name' content='Skeltoac' />
> > <meta name='botd:desc' content='The personal and impersonal journal of
> > Andy Skelton.' />
> 
> This is definitely a pattern encouraged by the HTML specification (except
> for the namespacing "botd:").

Yes, I threw it together as a temporary solution. I want to scrap it,
which is why this thread is exciting for me.

> > I suggest using a discreet element, perhaps <span
> > class="sitename">Doodz-R-Uz</span>
> 
> Why not simply use the <title> in the HTML?

<title> is usually used for other purposes than solely the name of the
site. Front pages will have keywords thrown in the <title> for SEO and
deeper pages will have page names, post titles, keywords, you name it.
<title> is almost never equal to site name.

> > "Generator" would be
> > optional.
> 
> Perhaps there could even be a separate "generator" microformat, which would
> make sense as an annotation on the *visible* "Built with XYZ" images/buttons
> that people put on their sites.  I think "generator" goes beyond just
> blogging.

You brink up a very good point here. I do not know how many people
consciously apply generator info to their visible designs. Many
mainstream packages use <meta name="generator"> to silently mark their
pages. This bypasses an author tendency to remove programatic
attribution from their visible designs. I wouldn't count on people to
design sites with visible generator info. If it's not there by
default, it probably won't be written in.

> > We might also define "founded" and "updated" dates as
> > optional.
> 
> I would suggest looking at the schemas in both ATOM and RSS as far as blog
> related datetime information.

I'll check into that.

Thank you,
Andy Skelton