At present, information published on the Web is interpreted by computers as strings of characters or symbols. In order to extract meaning from these symbols, sophisticated techniques such as natural language processing must be utilized. This is the reason why “microformats” has attracted considerable attention recently. By using microformats, computers in the near future will be able process information published on the Web by understanding the “meaning” behind the information.
Towards a Web in which both humans and computers can comprehend information
Microformats are techniques in which semantics and structure are assigned to pieces of information on Web pages. By adding microformats to a Web page, computers can process information that has been written for human audience. Applications that are compatible with microformats can read the structure and semantics of information by processing the data embedded within the Web page. Through the use of such applications, we can expect a full-text search function with better precision and a recommendation function that caters to personal preferences in a better manner. Below, we introduce some of the frequently used microformats.
- hCard
- This is a microformat for describing people, organizations, and geographic locations. This microformat is compatible with vCard, an electronic business card format used in mobile phones.
Google Maps uses hCard when displaying search results. By using an application that converts hCards into vCards, search results can be carried around inside your address book. - hCalendar
- This microformat is used for describing information related to events and schedules.
hCalendar is used to publish events at Upcoming (http://upcoming.yahoo.com) . - hReview
- This is a format for describing customer reviews. An example use of this format can be found in the product review section of the Apple Store.
Increasing the value of “highly usable information”
The volume of information available on the Web is increasing on a daily basis. We believe that in the near future, a transition to the next generation will take place, in which the recognized standard for measuring the quality of information will be the “ease of processing” and “ease of understanding the semantics” from the perspective of the applications processing the information. By utilizing microformats to add semantics and structure to information, you can begin to increase the value of information starting today.
What are microformats?
History of microformats
The history of microformats dates back to March 2003: it began with XFN (XHTML Friends Network), which was created for representing human relationships on blogs in a manner similar to SNS (Social Networking Site or Service), which had then begun to attract interests.
The term “microformats” was subsequently coined in 2004. It was during this year that hCard and hCalendar were invented as well. In 2005, the community website microformats.org was established, where community-based activities related to the development and promulgation of formats continues to date.
In March 2008, Yahoo! announced that it will support microformats, and it is expected that the use of microformats will spread even further, starting with search engines.
Semantic Web and microformats
Microformats have also been dubbed the “lowercase semantic web.” The term “Semantic Web” refers to the “next-generation World Wide Web that can understand and process the semantics of information” proposed by W3C. In order to realize the Semantic Web, several specifications for handling and representing the relationships and trustworthiness of information must be developed. Microformats represent an attempt to “make the Web semantic” within the limits of current standards, or in other words, “lowercase semantic web.”
While there are differences in the two ideas, they do not conflict with each other. Microformats can be incorporated into the uppercase “Semantic Web” as well. It is expected that a format called GRDDL proposed by W3C in 2007 will provide a link between the lowercase semantic web and the uppercase Semantic Web.
Links related to Microformats
- Microformats.org
- The Microformat community site.
- Microformats Wiki
- A Wiki containing microformat specifications.
Service flow
- Interview
To understand the objectives for using microformats and to define the scope for embedding microformats.
- Implementing microformats
Microformats are associated with various pieces of information on your Web pages.
- Development of an instruction manual
We will create an instruction manual containing the explanation of the microformats that were embedded as well as the procedure for adding and updating contents.
- Delivery
We will provide the HTML documents with embedded microformats together with the instruction manual as our deliverables.
