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I find discussions about the microformats approach to document structure almost comprehensible. Perhaps it is because the specifications themselves are designed to explain things to humans, this sensibility carries into the online debates.

Basics

Microformats are sets of open data formats used to specify semantic meaning in web content. The philosophy behind them is to leverage well-established web standard formats (i.e. today it is XHTML) instead of creating new vocabularies to provide a structured set of data that can be extracted for other purposes. This way web crawlers can find items such as contact information, events and reviews on web pages. Phil Haack captures the essential difference between Microformats and the similarly positioned but more ambitious XML: “Proponents often categorize Microformats as part of the ‘lowercase’ semantic web, to distinguish it from the lofty (and by some accounts unnattainable) goal of the ‘Semantic Web.’” A compelling reason for adopting microformats is that they make semantic goals possible.

A wealth of information is available on microformats.org. There you will discover that microformats are classifed as either “elemental” or “compound.”

Elemental Formats

An elemental microformat is a solution to a single problem; sometimes as simple as a single attribute attached to an existing tag. Examples include rel=”tag” used in folksonomy tagging and services such as Technorati; rel=”nofollow”, used to link to a page with third-party spam-weary instructions not to contribute to its Google page ranking; rel=”license”, for attaching a specific license to a web page made popular by Creative Commons; and XFN, for expressing your relationship to people you know. Larger formats like XOXO for outlines and lists are also elemental microformats.

Compound Microformats

In contrast, compound microformats are an organized collection of elemental microformats. Examples include hCard, a collection of data about a person much like the familiar vCard you send by email; hReview, for reviews of products, services and events; and hCalendar, a calendaring and events format.

Web pages using microformats look no different in your browser. But microformat savvy web crawlers could read this code on your website, share the content in other contexts.

Distributed Design

Microformats give web content publishers more control over their content by offering a simple, less intimidating way to provide meta-rich information without depending on centralized services. For example, web-based tools like flickr and del.icio.us make folksonomy tagging very easy. Unfortunately, their proprietary data formats make it difficult to transfer data among services. Furthermore, as Bud Gibson points out, there is currently no format that lets you add explicit semantic meaning to your own folksonomy tags. In this context, he proposes the microformat xFolk as an alternative way to share bookmarks. Microformats like xFolk, and services built around it, offer web content publishers greater control over their information than if their data were stored in siloed formats.

Debate

• My del.icio.us microformat links
• If you consider microformats as easily identified packets of information inside of web pages, then it is possible to understand how these packets might be shared. Bud Gibson describes how the reblog service is already doing this with full blog posts.
• Ray Ozzie’s describes the potential of microformats with Live Clipboard, which allows the copy and pasting of data on the web using an XML data format. In the screencasts, the hCard and hCalendar microformats use common clipboard data formats.
• Unfortunately, the answer to How microformats affect search engine optimization is, not much. But Shaun Skull points to several scenarios in which microformats could easily make search engine results more powerful and relevant.
• There are only so many XHTML attributes to leverage. Uche Ogbuji identifies a few cases in which XHTML-based microformats abuse the semantics of XHTML; a/@rel is especially abused.
• Given that microformats are “designed for humans first and machines second,” and the complexity of compound microformats, how important is validation? Norm Walsh has reservations if it can be done and Bill de hÓra says it matters “not a whit.”

Adoption

Update 8. Sept 2006 Potential and reservations aside, the question remains will microformats actually be used?

• ZMAng’s round up of themes and WordPress plugins suggest a high level of adoption is already possible for those who use this popular blog platform. WordPress natively supports defining relationships with XFN.
• Cork’d makes extensive use of microformats in its semantic markup: hReview as the format for wine reviews, hCard for wine reviewers and rel-tag for “tasting tags” such as pepper, berry, or moldy sock. (via)
• Technorati indexes and searches posts tagged with rel-tag. Recently, they have offered a similar service for micoformats. Microformats search finds events in hCalendar, contact details in hCard, and reviews in hReview in blogs and other web sites. It works closely with Pingerati, which lets you submit your content for indexing.
• Brian Suda’s X2Vconverts hCard or hCalendar to vCard or iCalendar format (the original IETF formats), respectively, for import into applications such as Outlook, iCal and Address Book. Technorati offers a similar services for adding hCard to your address book and hCalendar events to your calendar. Even more convenient for those who use the Firefox or Flock web browers, the TailsExport extension for Firefox, or the FlockTails extension for the Flock browser display and export microformats.

Questions

Is it really this simple? You work with an existing markup vocabulary like XHTML that has an attribute for specialization like a class, which you use to distinguish data within the same element. Surely there’s more to designing an extensible language?