Microformats
Email This Post
Most web pages have contact information on them and while you can look at an address and recognize it without a problem, your computer can’t. To your computer, it’s just more characters to display; it has no meaning. You could keep a separate file on your site to describe your address in a way that a computer can understand it, but where’s the fun in that? What you need is a MicroFormat.
Microformats attach semantics to content, to allow automated processing of the text.
Microformats are nothing more than plain old semantic-HTML or POSH. A microformat encoded address, would display in your browser as normal text; however, software designed to recognize microformats could act upon it.
Let’s use the example of the hCard, the microformat version of the vCard. A plugin added to FireFox will allow it to recognize an hCard and offer you the option to add it to your address book. While you can certainly look at a webpage and say “Hey, that’s an address, I’ll add that person to my address book†it’s not nearly as convenient and will impress no one at your next cocktail party.
There are currently 8 microformats defined, and the list, along with more details, can be found at microformats.org.
My name is Cal Evans and I am, your sixty second tech.
