microformat

Microformats emerged around 2005{{NoteTag|1= The microformats is a community-standard maintained by its Wiki, and [http://microformats.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page&dir=prev&action=history the Wiki arrived ~2005].}} as part of a grassroots movement to make recognizable data items (such as events, contact details or geographical locations) capable of automated processing by software, as well as directly readable by end-users.{{NoteTag|In this context, the definition of "end-user" includes a person reading a web page on a computer screen or mobile device, or an assistive technology such as a screen reader.}} Link-based microformats emerged first. These include vote links that express opinions of the linked page, which search engines can tally into instant polls.{{cite journal |title = Microformats: The Next (Small) Thing on the Semantic Web? |first=Rohit |last=Khare |journal=IEEE Internet Computing |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=68–75 |date=January–February 2006 |publisher=IEEE Computer Society |doi = 10.1109/MIC.2006.13 |s2cid=15375082 }}

CommerceNet, a nonprofit organization that promotes e-commerce on the Internet, has helped sponsor and promote the technology and support the microformats community in various ways. CommerceNet also helped co-found the Microformats.org community site.

Neither CommerceNet nor Microformats.org operates as a standards body. The microformats community functions through an open wiki, a mailing list, and an Internet relay chat (IRC) channel. Most of the existing microformats originated at the Microformats.org wiki and the associated mailing list{{citation needed|date=October 2012}} by a process of gathering examples of web-publishing behaviour, then codifying it. Some other microformats (such as rel=nofollow and unAPI) have been proposed, or developed, elsewhere.

XHTML and HTML standards allow for the embedding and encoding of semantics within the attributes of markup elements. Microformats take advantage of these standards by indicating the presence of metadata using the following attributes:

; class

: Classname

; rel

: relationship, description of the target address in an anchor-element (...)

; rev

: reverse relationship, description of the referenced document (in one case, otherwise deprecated in microformats{{cite web |url=http://microformats.org/wiki/rel-faq |title="rel" attribute frequently asked questions |work=Microformats.org |date=2008-08-06 |access-date=2008-09-06}})

For example, in the text "The birds roosted at 52.48, -1.89" is a pair of numbers which may be understood, from their context, to be a set of geographic coordinates. With wrapping in spans (or other HTML elements) with specific class names (in this case geo, latitude and longitude, all part of the geo microformat specification):

The birds roosted at

52.48,

-1.89

Software agents can recognize exactly what each value represents and can then perform a variety of tasks such as indexing, locating it on a map and exporting it to a GPS device.

In this example, the contact information is presented as follows:

• Joe Doe
• The Example Company
• 604-555-1234
• http://example.com/

With hCard microformat markup, that becomes:

• Joe Doe
• The Example Company
• 604-555-1234
• http://example.com/

Here, the formatted name (fn), organisation (org), telephone number (tel) and web address (url) have been identified using specific class names and the whole thing is wrapped in class="vcard", which indicates that the other classes form an hCard (short for "HTML vCard") and are not merely coincidentally named. Other, optional, hCard classes also exist. Software, such as browser plug-ins, can now extract the information, and transfer it to other applications, such as an address book.

Several microformats have been developed to enable semantic markup of particular types of information. However, only hCard and hCalendar have been ratified, the others remaining as drafts:

• hAtom (superseded by h-entry and h-feed) – for marking up Atom feeds from within standard HTML
• hCalendar – for events
• hCard – for contact information; includes:
• adr – for postal addresses
• geo – for geographical coordinates (latitude, longitude)
• hMedia – for audio/video content[http://microformats.org/wiki/hmedia hMedia · Microformats Wiki][http://sixrevisions.com/web-development/ultimate-guide-to-microformats-reference-and-examples/ Ultimate Guide to Microformats: Reference and Examples]
• hAudio – for audio content
• hNews – for news content
• hProduct – for products
• hRecipe – for recipes and foodstuffs.
• hReview – for reviews
• rel-directory – for distributed directory creation and inclusion[http://microformats.org/wiki/rel-directory rel-directory · Microformats Wiki]
• rel-enclosure – for multimedia attachments to web pages[http://microformats.org/wiki/rel-enclosure rel="enclosure" · Microformats Wiki]
• rel-license – specification of copyright license[http://microformats.org/wiki/rel-license rel="license" · Microformats Wiki]
• rel-nofollow, an attempt to discourage third-party content spam (e.g. spam in blogs)
• rel-tag – for decentralized tagging (Folksonomy)[http://microformats.org/wiki/rel-tag rel="tag" · Microformats Wiki]
• XHTML Friends Network (XFN) – for social relationships
• XOXO – for lists and outlines

Using microformats within HTML code provides additional formatting and semantic data that applications can use. For example, applications such as web crawlers can collect data about online resources, or desktop applications such as e-mail clients or scheduling software can compile details. The use of microformats can also facilitate "mash ups" such as exporting all of the geographical locations on a web page into (for example) Google Maps to visualize them spatially.

Several browser extensions, such as Operator for Firefox and Oomph for Internet Explorer, provide the ability to detect microformats within an HTML document. When hCard or hCalendar are involved, such browser extensions allow microformats to be exported into formats compatible with contact management and calendar utilities, such as Microsoft Outlook. When dealing with geographical coordinates, they allow the location to be sent to applications such as Google Maps. Yahoo! Query Language can be used to extract microformats from web pages.{{cite web|url=http://developer.yahoo.net/blog/archives/2009/01/wikipedia_w_yql.html|title=Retrieving and displaying data from Wikipedia with YQL|last=Heilman|first=Chris|date=2009-01-19|work=Yahoo Developer Network|publisher=Yahoo|access-date=2009-01-19|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110127010715/http://developer.yahoo.com/blogs/ydn/posts/2009/01/wikipedia_w_yql/|archive-date=27 January 2011}} On 12 May 2009 Google announced that they would be parsing the hCard, hReview and hProduct microformats, and using them to populate search result pages.{{cite web|url=http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/05/introducing-rich-snippets.html|title=Introducing Rich Snippets|last=Goel|first=Kavi|author2=Ramanathan V. Guha |author3=Othar Hansson |date=2009-05-12|work=Google Webmaster Central Blog|access-date=2009-05-25}} They subsequently extended this in 2010 to use hCalendar for events and hRecipe for cookery recipes.{{cite web|url=http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2010/04/better-recipes-on-web-introducing.html|title=Better recipes on the web: Introducing recipe rich snippets|last=Gong|first=Jun|author2=Kosuke Suzuki|date=2010-04-13|access-date=17 March 2011|author3=Yu Watanabe|work=Google Search Central Blog}} Similarly, microformats are also processed by Bing{{cite web|url=http://www.bing.com/community/site_blogs/b/search/archive/2011/06/02/bing-google-and-yahoo-unite-to-build-the-web-of-objects.aspx|title=Bing Introducing Schema.org: Bing, Google and Yahoo Unite to Build the Web of Objects – Search Blog – Site Blogs – Bing Community|date=2011-06-02|work=Bing|access-date=2 June 2011}} and Yahoo!.{{cite web|url=http://www.ysearchblog.com/2011/06/02/introducing-schema-org-a-collaboration-on-structured-data|title=Introducing schema.org: A Collaboration on Structured Data|date=2011-06-02|access-date=2 June 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110603031707/http://www.ysearchblog.com/2011/06/02/introducing-schema-org-a-collaboration-on-structured-data/|archive-date=3 June 2011}} As of late 2010, these are the world's top three search engines.{{cite web |url=http://gs.statcounter.com/#search_engine-ww-monthly-201010-201012 |title=Top 5 Search Engines from Oct to Dec 10| StatCounter Global Stats |publisher=StatCounter |access-date=17 January 2011}}

Microsoft said in 2006 that they needed to incorporate microformats into upcoming projects,{{cite web|url=http://microformats.org/blog/2006/03/20/bill-gates-at-mix06-we-need-microformats |title=Bill Gates at Mix06 – 'We need microformats' |date=2006-03-20 |quote=We need microformats and to get people to agree on them. It is going to bootstrap exchanging data on the Web… …we need them for things like contact cards, events, directions… |access-date=2008-09-06}} as did other software companies.

Alex Faaborg summarizes the arguments for putting the responsibility for microformat user interfaces in the web browser rather than making more complicated HTML:{{Cite web |url=http://blog.mozilla.com/faaborg/2007/02/04/microformats-part-4-the-user-interface-of-microformat-detection/ |title=Microformats – Part 4: The User Interface of Microformat Detection « Alex Faaborg|access-date=6 October 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080923215304/http://blog.mozilla.com/faaborg/2007/02/04/microformats-part-4-the-user-interface-of-microformat-detection/ |archive-date=23 September 2008 |url-status=dead }}

• Only the web browser knows what applications are accessible to the user and what the user's preferences are
• It lowers the barrier to entry for web site developers if they only need to do the markup and not handle "appearance" or "action" issues
• Retains backwards compatibility with web browsers that do not support microformats
• The web browser presents a single point of entry from the web to the user's computer, which simplifies security issues

Various commentators have offered review and discussion on the design principles and practical aspects of microformats. Microformats have been compared to other approaches that seek to serve the same or similar purpose.{{cite web |title=Criticism |work=Microformats.org |url=http://microformats.org/wiki?title=criticism&oldid=18478 |date=2007-03-24 |access-date=2007-08-15}} {{As of|2007|}}, there had been some criticism of one, or all, microformats. The spread and use of microformats was being advocated {{As of|2007||lc=y}}.{{cite web |title=Advocacy |work=Microformats.org |url=http://microformats.org/wiki/advocacy |date=2008-08-27 |access-date=2007-08-15}}{{cite web |title=Spread Microformats |work=Microformats.org |url=http://microformats.org/wiki/spread-microformats |date=2008-08-29 |access-date= 2007-08-15}} This includes community resources for marketing microformats such as buttons, banners, wallpaper / desktop screens, logo graphics, etc. Opera Software CTO and CSS creator Håkon Wium Lie said in 2005 "We will also see a bunch of microformats being developed, and that’s how the semantic web will be built, I believe."{{cite web |title=Interview with Håkon Wium Lie |url=http://www.molly.com/2005/03/31/interview-with-hkon-wium-lie/ |first=Molly E. |last=Holzschlag |author-link=Molly Holzschlag |date=2005-03-31 |work=Molly.com |access-date=2007-11-18}} However, in August 2008 Toby Inkster, author of the "Swignition" (formerly "Cognition") microformat parsing service, pointed out that no new microformat specifications had been published since 2005.{{cite web |title=More than three years |url=http://microformats.org/discuss/mail/microformats-discuss/2008-August/012402.html |work=Microformats.org |first=Toby A. |last=Inkster |date=2008-04-22 |access-date=2008-08-24}}

Computer scientist and entrepreneur, Rohit Khare stated that reduce, reuse, and recycle is "shorthand for several design principles" that motivated the development and practices behind microformats.{{rp|71–72}} These aspects can be summarized as follows:

• Reduce: favor the simplest solutions and focus attention on specific problems;
• Reuse: work from experience and favor examples of current practice;
• Recycle: encourage modularity and the ability to embed, valid XHTML can be reused in blog posts, RSS feeds, and anywhere else you can access the web.

Because some microformats make use of title attribute of HTML's {{tag|abbr|open}} element to conceal machine-readable data (particularly date-times and geographical coordinates) in the "[http://microformats.org/wiki/abbr-design-pattern abbr design pattern]", the plain text content of the element is inaccessible to screen readers that expand abbreviations.{{cite web |url=http://www.webstandards.org/2007/04/27/haccessibility/ | title=hAccessibility | first=James |last=Craig |publisher= Web Standards Project |date=2007-04-27 |access-date=2007-08-16}} In June 2008 the BBC announced that it would be dropping use of microformats using the abbr design pattern because of accessibility concerns.{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/radiolabs/2008/06/removing_microformats_from_bbc.shtml |title=Removing Microformats from bbc.co.uk/programmes |first=Michael |last=Smethurst |work= BBC |date=2008-06-23 |access-date=2008-08-24}}

Microformats are not the only solution for providing "more intelligent data" on the web; alternative approaches are used and are under development. For example, the use of XML markup and standards of the Semantic Web are cited as alternative approaches. Some contrast these with microformats in that they do not necessarily coincide with the design principles of "reduce, reuse, and recycle", at least not to the same extent.

One advocate of microformats, Tantek Çelik, characterized a problem with alternative approaches: {{cquote|Here's a new language we want you to learn, and now you need to output these additional files on your server. It's a hassle. (Microformats) lower the barrier to entry.}}

For some applications the use of other approaches may be valid. If the type of data to be described does not map to an existing microformat, RDFa can embed arbitrary vocabularies into HTML, such as for example domain-specific scientific data such as zoological or chemical data for which there is no microformat. Standards such as W3C's GRDDL allow microformats to be converted into data compatible with the Semantic Web.{{cite web |title=W3C GRDDL Recommendation Bridges HTML/Microformats and the Semantic Web |work=XML Coverpages |date=2007-09-13 |url=http://xml.coverpages.org/ni2007-09-13-a.html |publisher=OASIS |access-date=2007-11-23}}

Another advocate of microformats, Ryan King, put the compatibility of microformats with other approaches this way: {{cquote|Microformats provide an easy way for many people to contribute semantic data to the web. With GRDDL all of that data is made available for RDF Semantic Web tools. Microformats and GRDDL can work together to build a better web.}}

Microformats2 was proposed and discussed during FOOEast, 2010-05-02.{{cite web |title=microformats 2.0 discussion |date=2010-05-02 |url=http://microformats.org/wiki/events/2010-05-02-microformats-2-0}} Microformats2 was intended to make it easier for authors to publish microformats and for developers to consume them, while remaining backwards compatible{{cite web |title=microformats2 |url=http://microformats.org/wiki/microformats2}}

Using microformats2, the example above would be marked up as:

The birds roosted at

52.48,

-1.89

and:

• Joe Doe
• The Example Company
• 604-555-1234
• http://example.com/

• COinS
• Microdata (HTML)
• Intelligent agents
• JSON-LD
• RDFa Lite
• S5 (file format)
• Schema.org
• Simple HTML Ontology Extensions
• XMDP

{{NoteFoot}}

{{Reflist}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book |last=Allsopp |first=John |title=Microformats: Empowering Your Markup for Web 2.0 |date=March 2007 |publisher=Friends of ED |isbn=978-1-59059-814-6 |page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781590598146/page/368 368] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781590598146/page/368 }}
• {{cite book |last=Orchard |first=Leslie M |title=Hacking RSS and Atom |date=September 2005 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-0-7645-9758-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780764597589/page/602 602] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780764597589/page/602 }}
• {{cite book |last1=Robbins |first1=Jennifer Niederst |author-link=Jennifer Niederst Robbins |first2=Tantek|last2=Çelik|author-link2=Tantek Çelik|first3=Derek|last3=Featherstone|first4=Aaron|last4=Gustafson|title=Web Design in a Nutshell |edition=Third |date=February 2006 |publisher=O'Reilly Media |isbn=978-0-596-00987-8 |page=826 }}

{{refend}}

• {{cite book |last= Suda |first= Brian |title= Using Microformats |date=September 2006 |publisher= O'Reilly Media |isbn=978-0-596-52821-8 |page=45}}
• Ahmet Soylu, Patrick De Causmaecker, Fridolin Wild [http://www.rintonpress.com/journals/jmmonline.html#v6n1 Ubiquitous Web for Ubiquitous Environments: The Role of Embedded Semantics], article in Journal of Mobile Multimedia, Vol. 6, No.1, pp. 26–48, (2010). [https://lirias.kuleuven.be/bitstream/123456789/243944/2/JMM_soylu_et_al_2010.pdf PDF]

{{Commons category|Microformat screenshots}}

• [https://microformats.org/ microformats.org]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060903093453/http://www.digital-web.com/articles/microformats_primer/ Microformats Primer]
• [http://microformatique.com/optimus/ Optimus] microformats parser and validator
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070408210625/http://blog.mozilla.com/faaborg/2006/12/11/microformats-part-0-introduction A four-part discussion of Microformats, UI issues, and possible presentation in Firefox 3 by Alex Faaborg of Mozilla]

{{Semantic Web}}

Category:Knowledge representation

Category:Semantic HTML

Category:Semantic Web

Category:Web design

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