[uf-discuss] Could microformats be classed as spam by search engines?

[Dougal Campbell]

justin norton wrote:
> How would this effect the implementation of microformats in relation to 
> SEO? Is the microformat standard open to abuse from spammers? And do the 
> likes of Google, Yahoo and MSN currently recognise microformats as a 
> standard for the presentation of data?
> Thanks a lot,

Show me something that *isn't* open to abuse from spammers. It would be 
naive to think that a spammer couldn't use microformats as a way to 
trick services. As soon as somebody builds a service that leverages 
hFoobar microformatted data in the wild, spammers will start filling 
splogs with bogus content formatted as hFoobar. It's pretty much inevitable.

As far as CSS-hidden content goes, there's an awful lot of non-spam 
examples of that out there already (including, as already mentioned, in 
some uses of microformats). Automatically flagging hidden text as 
"spammy" would be an over-reaction, IMO. Ignoring it *may* be prudent 
for search engines, however.

-- 
Dougal Campbell <dougal at gunters.org>
http://dougal.gunters.org/