1 of 2

Write now Article Tools

The use of Micro formats

Through the use of micro formats you can automatically process geographic coordinates, calendar event, contact information, etc, via software, plus using existing XHTML and HTML tags to convey meta data among other attributes. Micro formats attach semantics as a way of simplifying complex methods of automation that include screen scraping or natural language processing, they assist in making data items searchable, saved, cross referenced or indexed, and version 3 of the Firefox browser and the version 8 of Internet Explorer are set to incorporate native support for micro formats. In the early days of Micro formats it were the link based micro formats that were to enter the fray, and they also entailed vote links that register opinions of a linked page, and this is taken into account by search engines as instant polls.

Commerce.net played an instrumental role of promoting and sponsoring the micro formats technology and assisted in the instigation of the micro formats.org and the site is behind the creation of the majority of micro formats through its wiki and associated mailing list. Micro formats such as rel=nofollow and unAPI were created elsewhere; micro formats show the presence of meta data through attributes that include class, rel and rev. Other micro formats are meant to assist in semantic markup of various types of information such as hAtom - marking up purposes, Atom hCalendar, hCard - contact information such as adr, geo, hProduct, hResume, hReview, hNews, rel-directory, rel-enclosure, rel-licence, rel-nofollow, rel-tag, xFolk-tagge links, XFN- for social relationships and XOXO - for lists and outlines. Many others are still in development and they include hAudio, hRecipe, citation - for citing references, currency, moneyfigure - for linking captions with images, geo extensions, species, measure and data values.

Extra formatting and semantic data used for applications can be derived from the use of micro formats within the HTML code and can be used to assist in mash ups, and you can use the Yahoo Query language to retrieve micro formats from within web pages. On the other hand, Google made a move to parse the hReview, hCard and hProduct micro formats in a bid to populate search result pages, while Microsoft also showed interest in their usage. A scientist and entrepreneur, R. Khare, attributes the words reduce, reuse and recycle as the shorthand for several design principles that helped inspire the development and practices around the micro formats technology. They are summarized as follows Reduce - favor the simplest solutions and focus attention on specific problems, Reuse - work from experience and favor examples of current practice and Recycle - encourage modularity and the ability to embed valid XHTML reusable on blog posts, RSS feeds and through other web spaces. The British Broadcasting Corporation decided to discontinue the use of micro formats using the abbr design pattern due to concerns around accessibility.

Learn more about this author, Neolexus.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

Add your voice

Know something about What are microformats?
We want to hear your view. Write now!