Microformats in blogs - What, why and how?

10.5.2008 @ 1:03 · Rapina

Draft for presentation in BarCamp Helsinki 10th of May 2008

What are microformats?

  • Microformats are HTML based formats for common data types embedded in HTML documents, mostly by using specific values for class or rel attributes.
  • Microformats increase the semantic fidelity of HTML by coupling semantic markup and semantic web. Microformats are often referred as grassroots / lower case / bottom-up approach to semantic web
  • Made for people first, machines second: emphasis is on making them as easy to use as possible for content creators.
  • Reuses rather than reinvents: microformats standardise widely used markup conventions and many are conversions from existing standards to HTML markup (eg. vCard -> hCard, iCal -> hCal, Atom -> hAtom)

Where are they used?

Just some examples:

What's in it for bloggers?

  • Bloggers have always been the vanguard of adopting and developing simple web technologies (RSS, permalinks, trackback and pingback).
  • Using micoroformats makes the content more structured and machine readeble: microformats offer a kind of light weight API for your content.
  • By using miroformats bloggers can publish on their own site data that would otherwise require separate service. This conforms to the often forgotten 2.0 -principle of owning your own data.
  • Current blogging platforms support some microformats (like rel-tag) but not very well publishing microformatted content in general. What is needed is more structural blogging approach from the platform providers.

Some useful microformats for bloggers

  • rel-tag: visible, machine-readeble content keywords, the most widely used microformat in blogs
  • rel-license: widely used due to support in creative commons licences. The cc licenses previously used cumbersome Dublin Core markup inside comments, now it's just one attribute value.
  • rel-nofollow is also implemented by most platforms for comment links. Not really visible for users.
  • XFN is supported by WP blogrolls, not much elsewhere. Google's Social Graph API will make this relevant. Especially the rel-me -relationship is useful for tying together the networked identity management (Check out Eric Meyer's Identity Archipelago on the sidebar).
  • Vote Links could be really interesting, if implemented in blogging editors
  • hCard, contact information, for profiles, obviously
  • hAtom is used in some templates, like WP Sandbox theme. WebSlices in IE8 will propably boost format's popularity. Might not really be a feed killer, but useful for separating independent pieces of content on a single page.
  • geo: coded location might become relevant as mobile microblogging gains popularity. Photo blogging is a another example.
  • hCalendar for announcing events, ideal for blogs!
  • hReview for reviews, also greate for bloggers!
  • hRecipe is uder development, but there's of potential here, if only for one segment of bloggers.

Tools for microformatted blogging

  • Structured blogging is a plugin for WP and MT that makes publishing content in some formats easier. The project seems to be dead, though.
  • The Microformats site has simple forms for creating microformatted HTML snippets, that can be pasted to posts. The problem is that some (or most?) blogging editors will filter the HTML and mess up with your markup, stripping class attributes, converting div's to p's, etc.

What is really needed is more structural approach from the blog platform providers: tools that are built in to user interface (or provided as plugins). Tumblr is an interesting example of structural approach, as it makes possible to publish different types of posts. They are not microformatted, though.

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