I think XML could be sufficient. But if it is, then why hasn't any of this been done? The reason why I believe (with my limited knowledge) microformats could be useful is I know how difficult it is to find and define products right now. Working in the product search business, we toil everyday with feeds and crawls. Nomalizing them is a difficult task. Manufacturers and merchants do not provide upc codes. And not every product has one. The descriptors that I see that we could benefit from include product name, model number, image, price, description, specs, availability, rebate, category, url, merchant name, manufacturer, upc if available, and possibly accessories. If this common data was wrapped in a standard microformat, then it would make the distribution of the product that much easier. I think that it would also help even the playing field a bit for smaller manufacturers and merchants. Essentially the better the product is defined the easier it is for search engines to find it and index it. I'm going to ETech this week. If any of you all are going to be there, it would be interesting to meet up and discuss. On Mar 5, 2006, at 12:00 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
David Beach |
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