[uf-discuss] microformat based web search

[Scott Reynen]

On [Jun 20], at [ Jun 20] 7:17 , rob smith wrote:

> Hello,
>
> If I am right, one of the primary objectives of using microformats  
> is to be able to retrieve the desired information from web pages  
> around the world easily and reliably.
>
> In connection with this, I'd like to know which all search engines  
> support the "microformat based web search". In other words, how do I  
> do a "microformat based web search" using a search engine like  
> google/yahoo/technorati? e.g. how do I query for all events  
> happening around the world on July 16, 2008?

Hi Rob,

I'm not aware of any way to do this in Google.  Here's the search in  
Yahoo:

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=searchmonkeyid%3Acom.yahoo.uf.hcalendar+%222008-07-16%22

Technorati's microformats search is currently "back in the oven to  
bake some more," but if it were working, I think that search would be  
something like this:

http://kitchen.technorati.com/event/search/%222008-07-16%22

Eventful is also pulling in hCalendar events, which you can search by  
date like so:

http://eventful.com/denver/events?t=2008071800-2008071823

All of that said, I'm not sure I'd call global search one of the  
primary objectives of microformats.  For me it's much more important  
that I be able to reuse information on a page I've already found,  
which I can already do well enough with plain text searches.  There's  
definitely a lot of potential to be able to do complex searches, e.g.  
events in the next month within 50 miles of Denver, CO with attendees  
whose job title includes "web" and who work at organizations with URLs  
including blog posts within the past month with "microformat" in the  
title.  And that's theoretically possible with existing microformats.   
But that's also just a first step.  The really interesting stuff, for  
me at least, happens after you find that data and begin to use it in  
new ways.

Peace,
Scott