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Microformats are not easily defined by a web browser, but rather by their usage. They are a subset of existing technology used to solve specific problems. Examples include presentation microformats, resumes, and business cards. They are not a new programming language and may not work for every situation.
A Microformat cannot be defined easily by something like a web browser, where there is a concrete definition of the object, but rather by its usage. The microformat concept could be viewed as a subset of an existing technology focused on solving a specific problem or an open source data format that can be used to solve a problem. They are not defined as a specific piece of data, like a word processing document, but more for a problem they help solve.
For example, xml is a data handling specification. Provides a summary and some details about the data it describes. This makes the data accessible from many more platforms and keeps it very loosely coupled with specific applications. The large scope of xml does not make it a microformat, however a smaller subset of tools within xml may be a microformat. Microformat comes into play when a specific task is solved using a smaller subset of existing tools.
Presentations are online every day, which makes them easier to view and extends their reach wherever there is an Internet connection. The presentation could be constrained to the usual media and viewed in a binary application such as Microsoft PowerPoint. It could also be formatted during the publishing process to be optimized for the web using a subset of xml tools specifically defined for presentation management; this would be called a presentation microformat.
It’s easier to give examples of a microformat at work than to show a concrete definition because there are so many ways to use microformats. Some in the open source community have created microformats for resumes, electronic business cards, and blog feeds. The possibilities are truly endless and will continue to grow as the open source community expands.
It’s easy to think of a Microformat as a new language for learning to program to create, but they’re not designed to function as a programming language or need entirely new tools. They won’t work for everyone or every situation, but for some things they work very well. It remains to be seen what the open source community and Internet users as a whole will do with this highly indefinable technology.
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