XML FeedsBing, Google and Yahoo! have announced Schema.org
Here is the info
Today we’re announcing schema.org, a new initiative from Yahoo!, Bing, and Google, to create and support a common set of schemas for structured data markup on web pages. With schema.org, webmasters and developers can learn about structured data and improve how their sites appear in search results on Bing, Google, and Yahoo!. Information and tips are available on schema.org, a one-stop resource for webmasters looking to add markup to make their pages better understood by search engines.
What is Schema.org?
This site provides a collection of schemas, i.e., html tags, that webmasters can use to markup their pages in ways recognized by major search providers. Search engines including Bing, Google and Yahoo! rely on this markup to improve the display of search results, making it easier for people to find the right web pages.
Many sites are generated from structured data, which is often stored in databases. When this data is formatted into HTML, it becomes very difficult to recover the original structured data. Many applications, especially search engines, can benefit greatly from direct access to this structured data. On-page markup enables search engines to understand the information on web pages and provide richer search results in order to make it easier for users to find relevant information on the web. Markup can also enable new tools and applications that make use of the structure.
A shared markup vocabulary makes easier for webmasters to decide on a markup schema and get the maximum benefit for their efforts. So, in the spirit of sitemaps.org, Bing, Google and Yahoo! have come together to provide a shared collection of schemas that webmasters can use.
Main site here: http://schema.org/
getting started site is here: http://schema.org/docs/gs.html
An example
Orginal HTML
- Jane Doe
- <img src="janedoe.jpg" />
- Professor
- 20341 Whitworth Institute
- 405 Whitworth
- Seattle WA 98052
- (425) 123-4567
- <a href="mailto:jane-doe@xyz.edu">jane-doe@illinois.edu</a>
- Jane's home page:
- <a href="www.janedoe.com">janedoe.com</a>
- Graduate students:
- <a href="www.xyz.edu/students/alicejones.html">Alice Jones</a>
- <a href="www.xyz.edu/students/bobsmith.html">Bob Smith</a>
With MicroData
- <div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Person">
- <span itemprop="name">Jane Doe</span>
- <img src="janedoe.jpg" itemprop="image" />
- <span itemprop="jobTitle">Professor</span>
- <div itemprop="address" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/PostalAddress">
- <span itemprop="streetAddress">
- 20341 Whitworth Institute
- 405 N. Whitworth
- </span>
- <span itemprop="addressLocality">Seattle</span>,
- <span itemprop="addressRegion">WA</span>
- <span itemprop="postalCode">98052</span>
- </div>
- <span itemprop="telephone">(425) 123-4567</span>
- <a href="mailto:jane-doe@xyz.edu" itemprop="email">
- <a href="mailto:jane-doe@xyz.edu</a>">jane-doe@xyz.edu</a></a>
- Jane's home page:
- <a href="www.janedoe.com" itemprop="url">janedoe.com</a>
- Graduate students:
- <a href="www.xyz.edu/students/alicejones.html" itemprop="colleagues">
- Alice Jones</a>
- <a href="www.xyz.edu/students/bobsmith.html" itemprop="colleagues">
- Bob Smith</a>
- </div>
What do you think, will you start implementing this?
Denis has been working with SQL Server since version 6.5. Although he worked as an ASP/JSP/ColdFusion developer before the dot com bust, he has been working exclusively as a database developer/architect since 2002. In addition to English, Denis is also fluent in Croatian and Dutch, but he can curse in many other languages and dialects (just ask the SQL optimizer) He lives in Princeton, NJ with his wife and three kids.
I haven't had a chance to look yet, but I wonder if built in support for the micro formats (hcard, etc) or if this is a whole different approach.
it ads a whole lot of markup and thus extra bandwith. 
Bandwith is cheap these days....are you still on dialup? 
It's not as much bandwidth to the end user as it is extra bandwidth to the infrastructure itself. Quite often, adding bloat for a "nice to have" just isn't worth it compared to compact and concise. 
Oh. Haha. That will make the XHTML hipsters cry badly if it's only available via HTML5/SGML markup. 
No 
yeah right 
So is there an authoritative list of 'itemprops' or is this make them up as you go along folksonomy cruft.
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