microformatsa quiet revolutionKarstenJanuszewski

About MeMIX Onlinehttp://visitmix.comProvide web developers & designers with articles & open source prototypes

What are microformats?

“A microformat is a web-based approach to semantic markup.”

“Microformats use existing HTML tags to convey metadata.”

“This approach allows information intended for end-users to also be automatically processed by software.”

What does that mean?Why should you care?The future of microformats

What does that mean?Why should you care?The future of microformats

Let’s microformatsome html

We just added meaning to HTML.

This is a big deal!

HTML is, by default, “meaningless.”

“meaning” is shared agreement.

microformatscontacts(2.5 billion pages)vEvent = event(1/2 billion pages)

Other microformatsresumesrecipesmedialistingsatomand more…http://microformats.org

We just added meaning to HTMLnon-invasivelywithout extensionsusing existing syntax

microformats take a radically different approach than other semantic web efforts RDFRDF/a Dublin Core

microformats vs. RDF/RDFamicroformatsNon-extensibleDoes not have grammarUses existing HTMLSchema is content specificWiki specRDF/RDFaExtensibleHas grammarUses HTML namespace extensionSchema is content agnosticStandards body

What does that mean?Why should you care?The future of microformats

“This approach allows information intended for end-users to also be automatically processed by software.”

Wouldn’t it be nice if your browser processed microformats?

Demo:Operator: Firefox plug-in

Demo:Oomph: a microformats toolkit

Oomph: a microformats toolkitmicroformats parser and UI(written in jQuery)IE plug-inCSS stylesWindows Live Writer plug-inASP.NET control

What does that mean?Why should you care?The future of microformats

IdentEnginebyGlenn Joneshttp://identengine.com

Challenges: Chicken or Egg?1. Meaningless microformats2. Browser Support3. Search Engine Support4. Tooling Support

Thank you!karstenj@microsoft.comhttp://visitmix.com http://rhizohm.net@irhetoric