structured_data_and_search_eng.html 13 KB

Raw Blame History Permalink

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
  <head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
    <style type="text/css" media="all">
    @import "/QA/2006/01/blogstyle.css";
    </style>
    <meta name="keywords" content='rdfa data web policy' />
    <meta name="description" content="Structured data on the web got a boost this week, with Google's announcement of Rich Snippets and Rich Snippets in Custom Search. Structured data at such a large scale raises at least three issues:SyntaxVocabularyPolicyGoogle's documentation shows support for both microformats..." />
    <meta name="revision" content="$Id: structured_data_and_search_eng.html,v 1.32 2011/12/15 22:21:23 mirror Exp $" />
   <link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="Atom" href="http://www.w3.org/QA/atom.xml" />
   <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS 1.0" href="http://www.w3.org/QA/news.rss" />
   <title>Search Engines take on Structured Data - W3C Blog</title>

   <link rel="start" href="http://www.w3.org/QA/" title="Home" />
   <link rel="prev" href="http://www.w3.org/QA/2009/05/w3c_is_micro-blogging.html" title="W3C is micro-blogging" />
   <link rel="next" href="http://www.w3.org/QA/2009/05/language_semantics_and_operati.html" title="Language semantics and operational meaning" />

   <!--
<rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
         xmlns:trackback="http://madskills.com/public/xml/rss/module/trackback/"
         xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">
<rdf:Description
    rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/QA/2009/05/structured_data_and_search_eng.html"
    trackback:ping="http://www.w3.org/QA/sununga/mt-tb.cgi/270"
    dc:title="Search Engines take on Structured Data"
    dc:identifier="http://www.w3.org/QA/2009/05/structured_data_and_search_eng.html"
    dc:subject="eGov"
    dc:description="Structured data on the web got a boost this week, with Google&apos;s announcement of Rich Snippets and Rich Snippets in Custom Search. Structured data at such a large scale raises at least three issues:SyntaxVocabularyPolicyGoogle&apos;s documentation shows support for both microformats..."
    dc:creator="Dan Connolly"
    dc:date="2009-05-13T16:18:42+00:00" />
</rdf:RDF>
-->

    <!-- <script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.w3.org/QA/mt.js"></script>-->

</head>
<body class="layout-one-column">
      <div id="banner">
      <h1 id="title">
	<a href="http://www.w3.org/"><img height="48" alt="W3C" id="logo" src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/WWW/w3c_home_nb" /></a>
W3C Blog
</h1>
    </div>

    <ul class="navbar" id="menu">
        <li><strong><a href="/QA/" title="W3C Blog Home">[ W3C Blog ]</a></strong></li>
        <li><a href="/QA/Library/" title="Documents and Publications on Web and Quality">Documents</a></li>
        <li><a href="/QA/Tools/" accesskey="3" title="Validators and other Tools">Tools</a></li>
        <li><a href="/2007/12/qa-blog-help/index#feedback">Feedback</a></li>
    </ul>
<div id="searchbox">
<form method="get" action="http://www.google.com/custom" enctype="application/x-www-form-urlencoded">
<p id="formbox"><input type="text" size="15" class="textfield" name="q" accesskey="E" maxlength="255" /> <input type="submit" class="submitfield" value="Search" id="goButton" name="sa" accesskey="G" /> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="T:black;LW:72;ALC:#ff3300;L:http://www.w3.org/Icons/w3c_home;LC:#000099;LH:48;BGC:white;AH:left;VLC:#660066;GL:0;AWFID:0b9847e42caf283e;" /><input type="hidden" id="searchW3C" name="sitesearch" checked="checked" value="www.w3.org/QA" /><input type="hidden" name="domains" value="www.w3.org/QA" /></p>
</form>
</div>


    <div id="main"><!-- This DIV encapsulates everything in this page - necessary for the positioning -->

                     <p class="content-nav">
                        <a href="http://www.w3.org/QA/2009/05/w3c_is_micro-blogging.html">&laquo; W3C is micro-blogging</a> |
                        <a href="http://www.w3.org/QA/">Main</a>
                        | <a href="http://www.w3.org/QA/2009/05/language_semantics_and_operati.html">Language semantics and operational meaning &raquo;</a>
                     </p>

                        <h2 class="entry-header">Search Engines take on Structured Data</h2>
                           <div class="entry-body">
                              <p>Structured data on the web got a boost this week, with Google's announcement of  <a href="http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/05/introducing-rich-snippets.html">Rich Snippets</a> and <a href="http://googlecustomsearch.blogspot.com/2009/05/enabling-rich-snippets-in-custom-search.html">Rich Snippets in Custom Search</a>. Structured data at such a large scale raises at least three issues:</p><ol><li>Syntax</li><li>Vocabulary</li><li>Policy<br /></li></ol><p>Google's <a href="http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=99170">documentation</a> shows support for both microformats and RDFa. It follows the hReview microformat syntax with small vocabulary changes (name vs fn). Support for RDFa syntax, in theory, means support for vocabularies that anyone makes; but in practice, Google is starting with a clean slate: <b>data-vocabulary.org</b>. That's a place to start, though it doesn't provide synergy with anyone who has uses FOAF or Dublin Core or the like to share their data.<br /></p><p>The policy questions are perhaps the most difficult. Structured data is a pointy instrument; if anyone can say anything about anything, surely the system will be gamed and defrauded. Google's rollout is one step at a time, starting with some trusted sites and an application process to get your site added. The O'Reilly <a href="http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/05/google-adds-microformat-parsin.html">interview</a> with Guha and Hansson is an interesting look at where they hope to go after this first step; if you're curious about how this fits in to HTML standards, see Sam Ruby's <a href="http://intertwingly.net/blog/2009/05/12/Microdata">microdata</a>.<br /></p><p>While issues remain--there are syntactic i's to dot and t's to cross and even larger policy issues to work out--between Google's rollout and <a href="http://developer.yahoo.com/searchmonkey/siteowner.html">Yahoo's searchmonkey</a> and the <a href="http://webbackplane.com/mark-birbeck/blog/2009/04/23/more-rdfa-goodness-from-uk-government-web-sites">UK Central Office of Information rollout</a>, it seems that the industry is ready to take on the challenges of using structured data in search engines.<br /></p>


                           </div>
                           <div id="more" class="entry-more">

                           </div>
                       <p class="postinfo">Filed by <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Connolly/">Dan Connolly</a> on May 13, 2009  4:18 PM in <a href="http://www.w3.org/QA/archive/technology/html/">HTML</a>, <a href="http://www.w3.org/QA/archive/technology/semantic_web/">Semantic Web</a>, <a href="http://www.w3.org/QA/archive/web_architecture/">Web Architecture</a>, <a href="http://www.w3.org/QA/archive/technology/egov/">eGov</a><br />
<span class="separator">|</span> <a class="permalink" href="http://www.w3.org/QA/2009/05/structured_data_and_search_eng.html">Permalink</a>
                                 | <a href="http://www.w3.org/QA/2009/05/structured_data_and_search_eng.html#comments">Comments (3)</a>
                                 | <a href="http://www.w3.org/QA/2009/05/structured_data_and_search_eng.html#trackback">TrackBacks (0)</a>
</p>


<h3 class="comments-header" id="comments">Comments</h3>
<div class="comment" id="comment-181789">
<p class="comment-meta" id="c181789">
<span class="comment-meta-author"><strong>Avi Rappoport / SearchTools.com </strong></span>
<span class="comment-meta-date"><a href="#c181789">#</a> 2009-05-19</span>
</p>
<div class="comment-bulk">
<p>It's good to know that you folks are watching this.  I hope you can prevail on Google to accept more microformats not invented there.</p>

</div>
</div>


<div class="comment" id="comment-182159">
<p class="comment-meta" id="c182159">
<span class="comment-meta-author"><strong>Stephane Deschamps </strong></span>
<span class="comment-meta-date"><a href="#c182159">#</a> 2009-05-29</span>
</p>
<div class="comment-bulk">
<p>By the way, is there an RDFa equivalent to hReview that I would have overlooked?</p>

</div>
</div>


<div class="comment" id="comment-182390">
<p class="comment-meta" id="c182390">
<span class="comment-meta-author"><strong>Anders blogger in websites </strong></span>
<span class="comment-meta-date"><a href="#c182390">#</a> 2009-06-16</span>
</p>
<div class="comment-bulk">
<p>It seems to be “easy” to build a profitable website, but it is not. The expectations are high and as I see it too many IT nerds master the technical side needed but lack the basic knowledge of relevant business principles. I do not think that a website can be turned into a golden egg only based on the tricks used by some in order to get the best ranking. Much more competence is needed and a deep understanding of how to manage through crises as we experience right now or expressed in another way, few have the ability to manage when rapid changes take place. I think it is also a question of communication, to whom do we speak, well both to our present customers as well as to potential. In advertising it is a known fact the a major part of advertising is spent to keep existing customers happy and the rest is for potential but maybe these days other rules are applying?</p>

</div>
</div>


  <div class="comments-open" id="comments-open">
<h3 class="comments-open-header">Leave a comment</h3>

<div class="comments-open-moderated">
   <p>
   Note: this blog is intended to foster <strong>polite
   on-topic discussions</strong>. Comments failing these
   requirements and spam will not get published. Please,
   enter your real name and email address. Every
   individual comment is reviewed by the W3C staff.
   This may take some time, thank you for your patience.
   </p>
   <p>
   You can use the following HTML markup (a href, b, i,
   br/, p, strong, em, ul, ol, li, blockquote, pre)
   and/or <a href="http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax">Markdown syntax</a>.</p>
</div>

<div id="comments-open-data">
<form method="post" action="http://www.w3.org/QA/sununga/beach.pl" id="comments-form">
<h4>Your comment</h4>
<div id="comments-open-text">
  <textarea id="comment-text" name="text" rows="20" cols="100"></textarea><br />
<label for="comment-text">Write your comment text here. Remember, keep the discussion on topic and courteous.</label>
</div>

<h4>About you</h4>
<div id="comment-form-name">
  <input type="hidden" name="static" value="1" />
<input type="hidden" name="entry_id" value="6362" />
<input type="hidden" name="__lang" value="en" />
<label for="comment-author">Your Name</label>
<input id="comment-author" name="author" size="30" value="" />
</div>
<div id="comment-form-email">
<label for="comment-email">Your Email Address</label>
<input id="comment-email" name="email" size="30" value="" />
</div>

<div id="comments-open-footer">
<input type="submit" accesskey="s" name="post" id="comment-submit" value="Submit" />

</div>
</form>
</div>
</div>


<p id="gentime">This page was last generated on $Date: 2011/12/15 22:21:23 $</p>

      </div><!-- End of "main" DIV. -->

<address>

This blog is written by W3C staff and working group participants,<br />
&nbsp;and maintained by <a href="/People/CMercier/">Coralie Mercier</a>.<br />
Authorized parties may <a href="/QA/new">log in</a> to create a new entry.<br/>
<span id="poweredby">Powered by Movable Type, magpierss and a lot of Web Technology</span>
    </address>


    <p class="copyright">
      <a rel="Copyright" href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notice#Copyright">Copyright</a> &copy; 1994-2011
      <a href="http://www.w3.org/"><acronym title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</acronym></a>&reg;
      (<a href="http://www.csail.mit.edu/"><acronym title="Massachusetts Institute of Technology">MIT</acronym></a>,
      <a href="http://www.ercim.eu/"><acronym title="European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics">ERCIM</acronym></a>,
      <a href="http://www.keio.ac.jp/">Keio</a>),
      All Rights Reserved.
      W3C <a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notice#Legal_Disclaimer">liability</a>,
      <a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notice#W3C_Trademarks">trademark</a>,
      <a rel="Copyright" href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/copyright-documents">document use</a>
      and <a rel="Copyright" href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/copyright-software">software licensing</a>
      rules apply. Your interactions with this site are in accordance
      with our <a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/privacy-statement#Public">public</a> and
      <a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/privacy-statement#Members">Member</a> privacy
      statements.
    </p>

  </body>
</html>