Microformats (μF) are a set of defined
HTML classes
HTML attributes are special words used inside the opening tag to control the element's behaviour. HTML attributes are a modifier of an '' HTML element type''. An attribute either modifies the default functionality of an element type or provides f ...
created to serve as consistent and descriptive
metadata
Metadata is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including:
* Descriptive metadata – the descriptive ...
about an
element, designating it as representing a certain type of data (such as
contact information,
geographic coordinates
The geographic coordinate system (GCS) is a spherical or ellipsoidal coordinate system for measuring and communicating positions directly on the Earth as latitude and longitude. It is the simplest, oldest and most widely used of the various ...
, events, blog posts, products, recipes, etc.). They allow
software
Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work.
At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...
to process the information reliably by having set classes refer to a specific type of data rather than being arbitrary. Microformats emerged around 2005 and were predominantly designed for use by search engines,
web syndication
Web syndication is a form of syndication in which content is made available from one website to other sites. Most commonly, websites are made available to provide either summaries or full renditions of a website's recently added content. The term m ...
and
aggregators such as
RSS
RSS ( RDF Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a web feed that allows users and applications to access updates to websites in a standardized, computer-readable format. Subscribing to RSS feeds can allow a user to keep track of many di ...
.
Although the content of web pages has been capable of some "automated processing" since the inception of the web, such processing is difficult because the
markup elements used to display information on the web do not describe what the information means.
Microformats can bridge this gap by attaching
semantics
Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy
Philosophy (f ...
, and thereby obviating other, more complicated, methods of automated processing, such as
natural language processing
Natural language processing (NLP) is an interdisciplinary subfield of linguistics, computer science, and artificial intelligence concerned with the interactions between computers and human language, in particular how to program computers to pro ...
or
screen scraping
Data scraping is a technique where a computer program extracts data from human-readable output coming from another program.
Description
Normally, data transfer between programs is accomplished using data structures suited for automated processin ...
. The use, adoption and processing of microformats enables data items to be indexed, searched for, saved or cross-referenced, so that information can be reused or combined.
, microformats allow the encoding and extraction of event details, contact information, social relationships and similar information.
Microformats2 abbreviated as mf2 is the updated version of microformats. Mf2 provides a more easy way of interpreting HTML(hypertext Markup Language) structured syntax and vocabularies than the earlier ways that made use of RDFa and microdata.
Background
Microformats emerged around 2005 as part of a grassroots movement to make recognizable data items (such as events, contact details or geographical locations) capable of automated processing by software, as well as directly readable by end-users.
Link-based microformats emerged first. These include vote links that express opinions of the linked page, which search engines can tally into instant polls.
CommerceNet CommerceNet is a 501(c)6 organization established in 1994 to promote electronic commerce on the Internet. The organisation initially focused on industry-wide research and programs that have advanced the commercial use of the Internet.
History
Comm ...
, a nonprofit organization that promotes
e-commerce
E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain manageme ...
on the Internet, has helped sponsor and promote the technology and support the microformats community in various ways.
CommerceNet also helped co-found the Microformats.org community site.
Neither CommerceNet nor Microformats.org operates as a
standards body
A standards organization, standards body, standards developing organization (SDO), or standards setting organization (SSO) is an organization whose primary function is developing, coordinating, promulgating, revising, amending, reissuing, interpr ...
. The microformats community functions through an open
wiki
A wiki ( ) is an online hypertext publication collaboratively edited and managed by its own audience, using a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages for the subjects or scope of the project, and could be either open to the pu ...
, a mailing list, and an Internet relay chat (
IRC
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a text-based chat system for instant messaging. IRC is designed for group communication in discussion forums, called '' channels'', but also allows one-on-one communication via private messages as well as chat an ...
) channel.
Most of the existing microformats originated at the Microformats.org wiki and the associated mailing list by a process of gathering examples of web-publishing behaviour, then codifying it. Some other microformats (such as
rel=nofollow and
unAPI
According to its website, an unAPI is:
The unAPI specification is only two pages long.
Server-side applications which use unAPI
* Bebop
* Evergreen
* Koha
* refbase
* WordPressbr>(via a plugin)* VITAL, digital repository
* invenio digit ...
) have been proposed, or developed, elsewhere.
Technical overview
XHTML
Extensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTML) is part of the family of XML markup languages. It mirrors or extends versions of the widely used HyperText Markup Language (HTML), the language in which Web pages are formulated.
While HTML, prior ...
and HTML standards allow for the embedding and encoding of semantics within the
attributes of markup elements. Microformats take advantage of these standards by indicating the presence of metadata using the following attributes:
;
class
:
Classname
;
rel
: relationship, description of the target address in an anchor-element (
...
)
;
rev
: reverse relationship, description of the referenced document (in one case, otherwise deprecated in microformats
)
For example, in the text "The birds roosted at
52.48, -1.89" is a pair of numbers which may be understood, from their context, to be a set of
geographic coordinates
The geographic coordinate system (GCS) is a spherical or ellipsoidal coordinate system for measuring and communicating positions directly on the Earth as latitude and longitude. It is the simplest, oldest and most widely used of the various ...
. With wrapping in
spans (or other HTML elements) with specific class names (in this case
geo
,
latitude
and
longitude
, all part of the
geo microformat specification):
The birds roosted at
52.48,
-1.89
software agents can recognize exactly what each value represents and can then perform a variety of tasks such as indexing, locating it on a map and exporting it to a
GPS
The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a Radionavigation-satellite service, satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of t ...
device.
Examples
In this example, the contact information is presented as follows:
With hCard microformat markup, that becomes:
Here, the formatted name (
fn
), organisation (
org
), telephone number (
tel
) and
web address
A Uniform Resource Locator (URL), colloquially termed as a web address, is a reference to a web resource that specifies its location on a computer network and a mechanism for retrieving it. A URL is a specific type of Uniform Resource Identifie ...
(
url
) have been identified using specific class names and the whole thing is wrapped in
class="vcard"
, which indicates that the other classes form an hCard (short for "HTML
vCard
vCard, also known as VCF (Virtual Contact File), is a file format standard for electronic business cards. vCards can be attached to e-mail messages, sent via Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), on the World Wide Web, instant messaging, NFC or ...
") and are not merely coincidentally named. Other, optional, hCard classes also exist. Software, such as browser plug-ins, can now extract the information, and transfer it to other applications, such as an address book.
Specific microformats
Several microformats have been developed to enable semantic markup of particular types of information. However, only hCard and hCalendar have been ratified, the others remaining as drafts:
*
hAtom
hAtom is a draft Microformat for marking up (X)HTML, using classes and ''rel'' attributes, content on web pages that contain blog entries or similar chronological content. These can then be parsed as feeds in Atom, a web syndication standard.
...
(superseded by
h-entry and
h-feed) – for marking up
Atom
Every atom is composed of a nucleus and one or more electrons bound to the nucleus. The nucleus is made of one or more protons and a number of neutrons. Only the most common variety of hydrogen has no neutrons.
Every solid, liquid, gas, and ...
feeds from within standard HTML
*
hCalendar
hCalendar (short for ''HTML iCalendar'') is a microformat standard for displaying a semantic (X)HTML representation of iCalendar-format calendar information about an event, on web pages, using HTML classes and ''rel'' attributes.
It allows p ...
– for events
*
hCard
hCard is a microformat for publishing the contact details (which might be no more than the name) of people, companies, organizations, and places, in HTML, Atom, RSS, or arbitrary XML. The hCard microformat does this using a 1:1 representation o ...
– for contact information; includes:
** adr – for postal addresses
**
geo
Geo- is a prefix derived from the Greek word ''γη'' or ''γαια'', meaning "earth", usually in the sense of "ground or land”.
GEO or Geo may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''GEO'' (magazine), a popular scientific magazine ...
– for geographical coordinates (
latitude
In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pol ...
,
longitude
Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east–west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek letter l ...
)
* hMedia – for audio/video content
* hAudio – for audio content
*
hNews
hNews is a microformat for news content developed by the Associated Press and the Media Standards Trust. hNews extends hAtom, introducing a number of fields that more completely describe a journalistic work. hNews also introduces rel-principles ( ...
– for news content
*
hProduct
hProduct is a microformat for publishing details of products, on web pages, using (X)HTML classes and ''rel'' attributes.
On 12 May 2009, Google announced that they would be parsing the hProduct, hCard and hReview
hReview is a microforma ...
– for products
*
hRecipe
hRecipe is a draft microformat for publishing details of recipes using (X)HTML on web pages, using HTML classes and ''rel'' attributes. In its simplest form, it can be used to identify individual foodstuffs, because the only required propertie ...
– for recipes and foodstuffs.
*
hReview
hReview is a microformat for publishing reviews of books, music, films, restaurants, businesses, holidays, etc.Microformats: Empowering Your Markup for Web 2.0 (2007) by John Allsopp p. 200 using (X)HTML on web pages, using HTML classes and ''re ...
– for reviews
* rel-
directory
Directory may refer to:
* Directory (computing), or folder, a file system structure in which to store computer files
* Directory (OpenVMS command)
* Directory service, a software application for organizing information about a computer network's u ...
– for distributed directory creation and inclusion
* rel-enclosure – for multimedia attachments to web pages
* rel-license – specification of copyright license
* rel-
nofollow
nofollow is a setting on a web page hyperlink that directs search engines not to use the link for page ranking calculations. It is specified in the page as a type of link relation; that is: <a rel="nofollow" ...>. Because search engines ...
, an attempt to discourage third-party content spam (e.g.
spam in blogs)
* rel-
tag – for decentralized tagging (
Folksonomy
Folksonomy is a classification system in which end users apply public tags to online items, typically to make those items easier for themselves or others to find later. Over time, this can give rise to a classification system based on those tags ...
)
*
XHTML Friends Network
XHTML Friends Network (XFN) is an HTML microformat developed by Global Multimedia Protocols Group that provides a simple way to represent human relationships using links. XFN enables web authors to indicate relationships to the people in their blog ...
(XFN) – for social relationships
*
XOXO – for lists and outlines
Uses
Using microformats within HTML code provides additional formatting and semantic data that applications can use. For example, applications such as
web crawler
A Web crawler, sometimes called a spider or spiderbot and often shortened to crawler, is an Internet bot that systematically browses the World Wide Web and that is typically operated by search engines for the purpose of Web indexing (''web spid ...
s can collect data about online resources, or desktop applications such as e-mail clients or scheduling software can compile details. The use of microformats can also facilitate "mash ups" such as exporting all of the geographical locations on a web page into (for example)
Google Maps
Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panoramic views of streets ( Street View), real-time traffic conditions, and rou ...
to visualize them spatially.
Several browser extensions, such as
Operator for
Firefox
Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements current and ...
and Oomph for
Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Internet Explorer, commonly abbreviated IE or MSIE) is a series of graphical user interface, graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft which was used in the Microsoft Wind ...
, provide the ability to detect microformats within an HTML document. When hCard or hCalendar are involved, such browser extensions allow microformats to be exported into formats compatible with contact management and calendar utilities, such as
Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft Outlook is a personal information manager software system from Microsoft, available as a part of the Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365 software suites. Though primarily an email client, Outlook also includes such functions as Calen ...
. When dealing with geographical coordinates, they allow the location to be sent to applications such as
Google Maps
Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panoramic views of streets ( Street View), real-time traffic conditions, and rou ...
.
Yahoo! Query Language
Yahoo! Query Language (YQL) is an SQL-like query language created by Yahoo! as part of their Developer Network. YQL is designed to retrieve and manipulate data from APIs through a single Web interface, thus allowing mashups that enable develop ...
can be used to extract microformats from web pages. On 12 May 2009
Google
Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...
announced that they would be parsing the hCard, hReview and hProduct microformats, and using them to populate search result pages.
They subsequently extended this in 2010 to use hCalendar for events and hRecipe for cookery recipes.
Similarly, microformats are also processed by
Bing
Bing most often refers to:
* Bing Crosby (1903–1977), American singer
* Microsoft Bing, a web search engine
Bing may also refer to:
Food and drink
* Bing (bread), a Chinese flatbread
* Bing (soft drink), a UK brand
* Bing cherry, a varie ...
and
Yahoo!
Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Man ...
.
As of late 2010, these are the world's top three search engines.
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
said in 2006 that they needed to incorporate microformats into upcoming projects, as did other software companies.
Alex Faaborg summarizes the arguments for putting the responsibility for microformat user interfaces in the web browser rather than making more complicated HTML:
* Only the web browser knows what applications are accessible to the user and what the user's preferences are
* It lowers the barrier to entry for web site developers if they only need to do the markup and not handle "appearance" or "action" issues
* Retains backwards compatibility with web browsers that don't support microformats
* The web browser presents a single point of entry from the web to the user's computer, which simplifies security issues
Evaluation
Various commentators have offered review and discussion on the design principles and practical aspects of microformats. Microformats have been compared to other approaches that seek to serve the same or similar purpose.
, there had been some criticism of one, or all, microformats.
The spread and use of microformats was being advocated .
[ This includes community resources for marketing microformats such as buttons, banners, wallpaper / desktop screens, logo graphics, etc.] Opera Software
Opera is a Norwegian multinational technology company and subsidiary of Kunlun that specializes in web browser development, fintech, as well as services such as Opera News and YoYo Games. The company's total user base, including users of its d ...
CTO and
CSS
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used for describing the presentation of a document written in a markup language such as HTML or XML (including XML dialects such as SVG, MathML or XHTML). CSS is a cornerstone techno ...
creator
Håkon Wium Lie
Håkon Wium Lie (born July 26, 1965) is a Norwegian web pioneer, a standards activist, and the Chief Technology Officer of Opera Software from 1998 until the browser was sold to new owners in 2016. He is best known for developing Cascading Styl ...
said in 2005 "We will also see a bunch of microformats being developed, and that’s how the
semantic web will be built, I believe."
However, in August 2008 Toby Inkster, author of the "Swignition" (formerly "Cognition") microformat parsing service, pointed out that no new microformat specifications had been published since 2005.
Design principles
Computer scientist and entrepreneur,
Rohit Khare stated that ''reduce, reuse, and recycle'' is "shorthand for several design principles" that motivated the development and practices behind microformats.
These aspects can be summarized as follows:
*Reduce: favor the simplest solutions and focus attention on specific problems;
*Reuse: work from experience and favor examples of current practice;
*Recycle: encourage modularity and the ability to embed, valid XHTML can be reused in blog posts,
RSS
RSS ( RDF Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a web feed that allows users and applications to access updates to websites in a standardized, computer-readable format. Subscribing to RSS feeds can allow a user to keep track of many di ...
feeds, and anywhere else you can access the web.
Accessibility
Because some microformats make use of title attribute of HTML's element to conceal
machine-readable data
Machine-readable data, or computer-readable data, is data in a format that can be processed by a computer. Machine-readable data must be structured data.
Attempts to create machine-readable data occurred as early as the 1960s. At the same time tha ...
(particularly date-times and geographical coordinates) in the
abbr design pattern, the plain text content of the element is inaccessible to
screen reader
A screen reader is a form of assistive technology (AT) that renders text and image content as speech or braille output. Screen readers are essential to people who are blindness, blind, and are useful to people who are visual impairment, visually ...
s that expand abbreviations.
In June 2008 the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
design pattern because of accessibility concerns.
Microformats are not the only solution for providing "more intelligent data" on the web; alternative approaches are used and are under development. For example, the use of
markup and standards of the Semantic Web are cited as alternative approaches.
Some contrast these with microformats in that they do not necessarily coincide with the design principles of "reduce, reuse, and recycle", at least not to the same extent.
, characterized a problem with alternative approaches:
For some applications the use of other approaches may be valid. If the type of data to be described does not map to an existing microformat,
can embed arbitrary vocabularies into HTML, such as for example domain-specific scientific data such as zoological or chemical data for which there is no microformat. Standards such as W3C's
allow microformats to be converted into data compatible with the Semantic Web.
Another advocate of microformats, Ryan King, put the compatibility of microformats with other approaches this way:
Microformats2 was proposed and discussed during FOOEast, 2010-05-02. Microformats2 was intended to make it easier for authors to publish microformats and for developers to consume them, while remaining backwards compatible
article in Journal of Mobile Multimedia, Vol. 6, No.1, pp. 26–48, (2010)