On Dec 5, 2005, at 9:47 AM, kenny heaton wrote:
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..)
The words "anything and everything" make me think "open-ended
problem," which makes me think that a microformat may not be feasible.
Specific formats for specific products seems to be more the
Microformat Way (TM).
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.
Ironically, the basic schema sounds alot like hreview [http://
microformats.org/wiki/hreview].
Could product listings be like reviews by the manufacturer/seller?
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.
I'm sure there's tons of prior art, but very little in terms of
widely adopted formats. There's already been some reasearch done on
"listings" (where the use-case is more craigslist-like):
http://microformats.org/wiki/listing-examples
http://microformats.org/wiki/listing-formats
http://microformats.org/wiki/listing-brainstorming
Have a look and see what you can contribute.
-ryan
--
Ryan King
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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