This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Python Buzz by Phillip Pearson. Original Post: Atom-as-microformat Feed Title: Second p0st Feed URL: http://www.myelin.co.nz/post/rss.xml Feed Description: Tech notes and web hackery from the guy that brought you bzero, Python Community Server, the Blogging Ecosystem and the Internet Topic Exchange Latest Python Buzz Posts Latest Python Buzz Posts by Phillip Pearson Latest Posts From Second p0st

OK, this sounds like a truly weird idea, but it might just work: Atom represented as a microformat. This is a continuation of the microformat philosphy: marking up things which already have meaning in HTML. So when you render a post, instead of rendering it like this:

<h3>Post title</h3>

<p>Second post paragraph</p>

You render it like this:

<h3 class="title">Post title</h3>

<p>Second post paragraph</p></span>

This makes it easier for a scraper to figure out that it's a post, and to get the actual data out.

Anyone starting to notice that microformats are totally aimed at making life easier for Technorati and other search engines that don't grok RSS and feeds?

What I don't like about this format is that it's a total replacement of existing technology - you can already archive your posts in RSS 2.0 format, and the accepted standard for interchange these days is the Movable Type export/import format.

That said, a) not everybody archives their posts in these formats, b) only Radio does it for you automatically, and c) adding the microformat tags only requires a small template change in any blogging tool, so it's way easier.

One suggestion I'd like to make is that the CSS class names used should be a little less ambiguous. I've already had problems with Bloglines defining CSS rules for short words like "item" and screwing up the rendering of hReview-formatted entries. We should call them something like atom_title, or post_title - something long enough to give them a reasonable chance of not clashing with existing rules.

Comment