I'd like to revisit the subject of a product microformat again if I may.
I think I've finally found a reason why I'd (personally) like to have a product microformat. I'd like to be able to dynamically add a link to reevoo reviews on many different retailer sites (using something like greasemonkey). Having looked at a few retailers this morning I realise that it's currently virtually impossible. It would be trivial if their product data was marked up using a microformat containing identifying information.
The first obvious (and I'd suggest major) problem here is in getting the retailers on board. Not only due to the extra work involved but also because it could make it easier for price comparison sites to work without their (the retailer's) involvement - actually I'm not sure that's a real problem...
I wonder if Mike (Dierken) and David (Beach) would have any info re the possibility of getting a microformat like this integrated into Amazon and Yahoo! Shopping?
I wonder also if anyone else has any more actual uses (I realise mine is kinda only relevant to me/reevoo.com) of a product microformat; and, almost more importantly, whether these uses would bring any compelling reasons for the retailers to sign up? Personally I'm not convinced this is worth pursuing unless the retailers get on board. Having just had another quick scan of the microformats wiki I wonder if the concept of a product microformat is quite different from all the others (could very easily be my lack of understanding). I think that all the other microformats can be useful even if only used by individuals: where a product microformat only really becomes useful when used/endorsed by retailers. Does this sound fair?
Look forward to hearing thoughts on this. Chris _______________________________________________ microformats-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://microformats.org/mailman/listinfo/microformats-discuss
