Bing, Google and Yahoo! Join Forces with schema.org

[HTMLBasicTutor]

Seeing no one else posted this news from today,

Bing, Google and Yahoo! have joined forces to support schema.org.

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.

schema.org

Too bad the browser people can't do something like this and all support the web standards the same.

[AboutWeb]

It looks promising, but it's a lot to read, too many tags and hard to understand and to remember what and when to use. A GUI tool that could apply these tags to a webpage would be more useful.

[SteveGerencser]

This looks a lot more like a power grab by the SEs again.. There are a lot of people ranting about them making what could be a great thing junk filled caca.. Way to many tags, way too much overhead, and yet again, pushing what the SEs can't do on their own on to web masters.. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee..

[deepsand]

In theory, sound like a fine notion.

In practice, may turn out to be the spammer's call-to-action.

[SteveGerencser]

I can understand the desire to take 3 separate microthingies, each created in an open source manner, and saying screw this and just coming out with their "standard".. But the question is, do we really want for profit companies defining how we create relationships online or do we want to leave that to the open source format to work out??

What ever happened to the dream of natural language search?? Is that just being tossed aside in favor of a structured format, agreed on by the search engines, to make their jobs easier?? And more importantly in my mind, are we going to allow them to simply take over even more of the way the internet is used so that they can profit even more??

[deepsand]

That which is developed independent of a business motive and thrives is bound to be co-opted sooner or later if there is an economic benefit to be had.

[williamc]

Was it not google that told us NOT to code our webpages for search engines, but rather for users? This seems oddly at odds with that scenario...

[HTMLBasicTutor]

There Is No Standard Google Search Results Anymore

They just want you to give them an additonal helping hand. Just like all the other hoops like Webmaster Tools, Sitemaps, etc. Less ware and tear on their machines.

[deepsand]

Was it not google that told us NOT to code our webpages for search engines, but rather for users? This seems oddly at odds with that scenario...

There ya go again, gettin' all logical.

[kgun]

Too bad the browser people can't do something like this and all support the web standards the same.

So you have not read the most important thread on this forum?

I found this Opera: Web Standards Curriculum article today that may be of interest to some members / surfers.

Source: http://www.webproworld.com/webmaster...l=1#post488350