Microformats explained

Posted in on 5 April 2007

Glenn Jones gave a lucid explanation of microformats and their usage at last night's Sussex Geek Dinner [photos]. In particular, it was interesting to hear that microformats would be a big part of Firefox 3 when it arrives [the browser as an 'interface between web and desktop'] - although the excellent Operator add-on does a great job already.

Bluetooth microformats! Now that's cool usage

Glenn also related a story from a recent London Barcamp where microformats were used to transfer contact information (hCard to vCard) from a bluetooth laptop to a bluetooth mobile phone with the click of a link. Bluetooth microformats! Now that's cool usage...

Another point that I found interesting was use of the address tag in combination with the rel="me" atrribute/value to point to the author's contact details. I think I might get busy and implement this myself.

One final comment, for microformats to really break-out into the mainstream, it will require content management systems, blogs and the like to automatically add this information. Sure, this might be based on 'easy' user input perhaps (a check box here and there) but it won't happen if the average user has to get down and dirty with the code....

As a freelancer 'locked away' in a home office, it's sometimes difficult for me to get much of an idea about the 'real world' and the Sussex Geek Dinners are one way of touching base with a few more people. Thanks to Simon for the excellent organisation as always.

Update: Glenn's presentation [1.4MB PDF]

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