I work for a hardware manufacturer and as I think about microformats and how to use them, one of the first things that comes to mind is a way do describe our products. I've searched around a bit and haven't found any examples of a standard way to describe goods/products/merchandise and feel this would be very valuable. I did find this on using RSS to syndicate a catalog of items which I see as a good next step after there is a way to describe individual items.
http://ifindkarma.typepad.com/relax/2004/07/catablog.html The way I see it there are two approaches; a format for generally describing anything and everything form houses to pin-cushions, or a format for each type of product (example, a house description format, a car discretion format, etc..) Since there is now way to keep up with the amount things that there are to describe, I think having a general format is a good idea. I know general considered bad, and specific is better so I would appreciate feed back on this thought, but I can't think of any other way to allow someone to describe the what-cha-ma-call-it they just invented. I also think that specific formats for describing common things is needed, so someone can easily compare two DVD players for example. So things like houses, cars, electronics etc.. might have a more specific microformat derived form the genial product format, that describes them more specifically. My first thoughts are that most all product have a set of basic information in common: a name, a summary including a description of use, a list of specific features, manufacturer or re-seller name, and copyright or legal information. These are just my first thoughts, and I feel there is a real need for this, but I would love to hear what others think, or if anyone know of something along these lines. Kenny _______________________________________________ microformats-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://microformats.org/mailman/listinfo/microformats-discuss
