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Microformats are a way of adding simple markup to human-readable data items such as events, contact details or locations, on web pages, so that the information in them can be extracted by software and indexed, searched for, saved, cross-referenced or combined. | Microformats are a way of adding simple markup to human-readable data items such as events, contact details or locations, on web pages, so that the information in them can be extracted by software and indexed, searched for, saved, cross-referenced or combined. | ||
More technically, they are items of semantic markup, using just standard "plain old semantic (X)HTML" (i.e. "[[POSH]]") with a set of common class-names. They are open and available, freely, for anyone to use. | More technically, they are items of semantic markup, using just standard "plain old semantic (X)HTML" (i.e. "[[POSH]]") with a set of common [[class-names]] and "[[rel]]" values. They are open and available, freely, for anyone to use. | ||
== Why Microformats == | == Why Microformats == | ||
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* Microformats are a simple effort which has appealed to many frustrated with previous complex efforts. One parallel that can be drawn is to REST in the web services world - for more on REST see [[suggested-reading#REST|suggested reading on REST]]. | * Microformats are a simple effort which has appealed to many frustrated with previous complex efforts. One parallel that can be drawn is to REST in the web services world - for more on REST see [[suggested-reading#REST|suggested reading on REST]]. | ||
* See: [http://www.justinleavesley.com/journal/2005/7/28/web-services-and-the-innovators-dilemma.html Web Services and the Innovators Dilemma] by | * See: [http://www.justinleavesley.com/journal/2005/7/28/web-services-and-the-innovators-dilemma.html Web Services and the Innovators Dilemma] by Justin Leavesley | ||
==See also== | ==See also== | ||
*Recent [[press]] interviews and [[articles]] are also a good introduction. | * A list of [[notable-users|some notable users]]. | ||
*See microformat [[presentations]] for more background and introductory material on [[microformats]]. | * Recent [[press]] interviews and [[articles]] are also a good introduction. | ||
*Listen to [[podcasts]] about microformats. | * See microformat [[presentations]] for more background and introductory material on [[microformats]]. | ||
*Read the [[faq|FAQs]] for general microformat queries. | * Listen to [[podcasts]] about microformats. | ||
*More [[suggested-reading|suggested reading]] | * Read the [[faq|FAQs]] for general microformat queries. | ||
*[[implement|So you want to implement microformats?]] | * More [[suggested-reading|suggested reading]] | ||
*[[presentations]] | * [[implement|So you want to implement microformats?]] | ||
*[[podcasts]] | * [[presentations]] | ||
*[[testimonials]] | * [[podcasts]] | ||
* [[testimonials]] | |||
Revision as of 10:51, 14 October 2007
Introduction to Microformats
What are Microformats?
Microformats are a way of adding simple markup to human-readable data items such as events, contact details or locations, on web pages, so that the information in them can be extracted by software and indexed, searched for, saved, cross-referenced or combined.
More technically, they are items of semantic markup, using just standard "plain old semantic (X)HTML" (i.e. "POSH") with a set of common class-names and "rel" values. They are open and available, freely, for anyone to use.
Why Microformats
Why did we come up with microformats?
In short, microformats are the convergence of a number of trends:
- a logical next step in the evolution of web design and information architecture
- a way for people and organisations to publish richer information themselves, without having to rely upon centralized services
- an acknowledgement that (outside of specialist areas) "traditional" metadata efforts have either failed or taken so long to garner any adoption, that a new approach was necessary
- a way to use (X)HTML for data.
The Appeal to Simplicity
- Microformats are a simple effort which has appealed to many frustrated with previous complex efforts. One parallel that can be drawn is to REST in the web services world - for more on REST see suggested reading on REST.
- See: Web Services and the Innovators Dilemma by Justin Leavesley
See also
- A list of some notable users.
- Recent press interviews and articles are also a good introduction.
- See microformat presentations for more background and introductory material on microformats.
- Listen to podcasts about microformats.
- Read the FAQs for general microformat queries.
- More suggested reading
- So you want to implement microformats?
- presentations
- podcasts
- testimonials