[uf-discuss] Search on CSS element (was: Making Microformats Searchable)

[Scott Reynen]

On Jan 22, 2007, at 1:38 PM, Nir Yariv wrote:

>> Again, we're not asking anyone to read CSS file; we're asking them to
>> index the "class" attributes of HTML they're already crawling. We
>> already know that Google does look at this information (they did a
>> report on it last year) and I'm fairly sure that there are a  
>> number of
>> search companies aware of microformats. There are very few
>> implementation issues: most programmers, including those at many
>> search companies, are aware how to break up a space separated list of
>> words.
>
> The point isn't whether it's hard for search engines to support MFs
> (obviously it isn't), the point is whether to wait for a solution to
> come from SE's side or implement it now in the publisher side.

This is a false choice.  You can implement your own solution now in  
your publishing and encourage other publishers to do the same while  
those of us who are interested in better search engines can continue  
to pursue that avenue.  There's no reason anyone needs to choose  
between the two.  If you have a hypothesis about some way to improve  
the web, the best thing to do is test that hypothesis on the web.  If  
it works, you'll find it much easier to convince others of your idea  
by pointing to the success.  If it doesn't work, you can at least  
learn something in the process.

Peace,
Scott