Microformats is not really a new technology, but a way of tagging your content with additional information so that it is understood what the content is. Whilst relatively a new concept, many people are already doing it.
The concept of Microformats is a worthy one, and probably best describing in their own words.
Designed for humans first and machines second, microformats are a set of simple, open data formats built upon existing and widely adopted standards. Instead of throwing away what works today, microformats intend to solve simpler problems first by adapting to current behaviors and usage patterns (e.g. XHTML, blogging).
Whilst many of the newer Microformats are still in draft, there are a number that aren't, and there are likely to be more as more sites adopt them. The following list represents the majority of what has been specified, or drafted so far.
- hCalendar
- hCard
- rel-license
- rel-nofollow
- rel-tag
- VoteLinks
- XFN
- XMDP
- XOXO
- adr
- geo
- hAtom
- hResume
- hReview
- rel-directory
- rel-enclosure
- rel-home
- rel-payment
- Robots Exclusion
- xFolk
Probably one thing you're wondering is why you should use them, and I'm not saying you should - just that it's a good idea to. One way of thinking about the use of these is to think of how CSS defines how the content will look, and JavaScript defines how the content should behave - now Microformats define what the content actually is.
