Hello,
This is my first message to the microformats list; I'm very interested in
implementing microformats in a new site I am building, but am having some
difficulties figuring out a best practice for something that is coming up.
The site I am building is essentially an aggregator for local businesses, with
reviews, directions, hours, descriptions, events, and Google Map
implementation. As such, it seems perfect as a testing ground for me to play
with microformats, and microformats seem perfect to add a bit more
functionality to the site down the road.
The issue I'm having right now is finding a balance between keeping my site
optimized for human reading, and also making it as semantically robust as
possible for machines. The specific issue is that since every business on the
site is found within our county, it makes no sense to include either locality
(California) or country-name (US) in the address information for the reader to
see. This simply takes up space without adding any information -- the site is
manifestly about businesses based in California, which is therefore in the US.
Now, the spec seems to say I can omit this information if I choose to. At the
same time, it seems like omitting this information would result in a less
robust experience for anyone getting the information down the line via an
aggregator -- humans visiting the site will know it is in California and in the
US, but machines will not, and therefore humans who see the businesses listed
anywhere other than our site won't know what state they're in.
Obviously I could just include the information, even though it serves no
function for the human readers of the site. But I am reluctant to add redundant
information that serves no function to human readers -- part of the draw of
u-formats for me is the ability to have added semantic information without
compromising my end-user experience.
The code at the end of this email is how I would envision solving this problem,
by having essentially "empty" fields. But my question is: what is the general
feeling towards having empty fields for this information? Obviously search
engines would be likely to ignore this meta-data (since it could easily be
faked), but that's not a concern of mine. Are there other valid reasons I
should avoid this? Is there a best-practice that I should follow? Preferably
one that doesn't force me to rewrite chunks of contact information in a way
that detracts from user experience just to fulfill the machine end?
Thank you all so much for your work on this project, and I look forward to
spending a great deal of time playing with these beautiful things.
~~Brendan McGuigan
<div class="vcard">
<div class="fn org">Test Local Business</div>
<div class="adr">
<div class="street-address">400 Main St.</div>
<div>
<span class="locality">Mendocino</span>,
<abbr class="region" title="California"></abbr> <span
class="postal-code">95460</span> <abbr class="country-name" title="USA"></abbr>
</div>
<div>Phone: <span class="tel">707-937-0000</span></div>
<div>Email: <span class="email">[EMAIL PROTECTED]</span></div>
</div>
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