What are microformats?

The microformats website itself give the simplest definition: “Microformats are small bits of HTML that represent things like people, events, tags, etc. in web pages.” That’s it. Microformats are a normalised way to describe web pages content, taking them small bit by small bit, instead of describing the whole document as we are used to with XML format. By structuring sub elements of a web page, microformats make them readable and searchable for computer eye. Microformatted elements are then easy to exchange and combine.

Is this useful for my website?

Among other technologies and formats, microformats are a step toward semantic web. They are a simple way to structure your content to make it (almost) universally understable. Taking part in such a way to make the web more inteligent may not be immediatly useful. But if these formatting rules are widely used on websites, they will become really interesting and fun to play with. Even if microformats don’t end up as THE semantic standard, you will have spent some time thinking about structuration of your content, it is not a loss of work.

How may I get microformatted?

One other good thing about microformats is they are simple to implement, at least for the familiarisation phase (I got started with hCard and hReview and I still have some work to do onit). For some of them, such as hCalendar ou hReview, you can find code generators. Once you’ve got the code,you don’t need any more tools than your usual text editor. As this is an open format, you can also contribute to microformats expansion by implementing, giving feedback, writing documentation, even proposing a new format if needed.

Any more questions?

• Who are microformats people?
• Is there a simple way to get my website ready?
• Are microformats part of the W3C initiative?