Microformats University: 100+ Articles and Resources

Microformats are small formatting pieces designed to make your data easier to read by both users and software. Although their use is not widespread, it’s important that every web developer becomes familiar with them, as they’re sure to be an integral part of the web’s future. Because of this, there are a number of articles and resources out there devoted to microformats. We’ve compiled more than 100 of the best here. Introduction If you’ve never heard of microformats before, this is the place to start.

1. Microformat: This article from Wikipedia will give you a quick idea of how microformats work.
2. Microformats.org: On this site, you’ll get an overview and the latest information on microformats.
3. Introduction to Microformats: This introduction explains microformats in friendly, easy to understand language.
4. What are Microformats?: Get a quick look at microformats in this introduction.
5. Microformats: What They Are and How to Use Them: See how microformats have come about, and how you can take advantage of them.
6. What You Can Do With Microformats: Check out this article to see what’s possible.
7. Microformats: Check out this MozillaWiki article to find out more about microformats, and how they’re used with Firefox.
8. An Introduction to Microformats: Find out how you can put microformats to work with this introduction.
9. Microformats Primer: Find examples, standards, and more information about microformats in this primer.
10. Intro to Microformats: See why microformats are important, and get a walkthrough on tagging and more.

Implementations See how a handful of sites have put microformats to work.

11. Blinksale: This invoicing platform makes use of the hCard standard.
12. Blogmarks: Blogmarks publishes user bookmarks with xfolk/rel-tag.
13. Cork’d: This wine review site uses hCard for user profiles and hReview for wine reviews, as well as rel-tag for tagging wines.
14. Digg: Digg supports hCards in profiles as well as rel-me for identities.
15. Eventful: Eventful uses hCalendar for event listings and hCard for venues.
16. LinkedIn: LinkedIn makes use of hCard and XFN, hResume, and hReview.
17. Ma.gnolia: This bookmark site uses loads of different microformats, specifically rel-tag, hReview, and hCard.
18. Technorati: Technorati is full of microformats usage, including hCards, hCalendar, and hReview.
19. Twitter: Twitter makes use of hAtom, hCard, and XFN.
20. Yahoo!: In a number of different uses, Yahoo! takes advantage of rel-license, hCard, hCalendar, hReview, and more.

Articles & Presentations Here you can read about a number of different issues with microformats, and what you can expect from them in the future.

21. Where Microformats Might Take Us: Find out what microformats can make possible.
22. Microformats: The Fine Art of Markup: Check out this series to learn about how you can enhance your content with microformats.
23. The Big Picture on Microformats: Find out how microformats are currently used, and what we can expect to see in the future.
24. The Awesome Power of Microformats: In this presentation, you’ll see how awesomely microformats can harness data.
25. How YOU Can Make the Web More Structured: In this article ReadWriteWeb sells microformats as a way to structure the web.
26. The Progress and Promise of Microformats: Learn more about the microformats movement, and some of the issues we’ll see in the future.
27. Microformats for RDF Fans: This wiki article discusses what RDF users should know about microformats, and why they should switch.
28. hAccessibility: This article discusses why and how microformats can make the web a more accessible and usable tool.
29. Microformats: Tomorrow’s Web Today: This article takes a look at the practical applications of microformats.
30. Mozilla Does Microformats: Firefox 3 as Information Broker: This article discusses the possibilities that occur when Web browsers associate semantically marked up data with applications in your system and online.
31. WSG Microformats Talk: See how microformats mean the web will serve people first, and make it easy to only write once.
32. Microcontent Design, Part 1: Explore microcontent design in this article that discusses data sources and formats, structured blogging, and lots more.
33. Microcontent Design, Part 2: BBC Case Study: See how BBC is using microcontent on their BBC Backstage site.
34. Microcontent Design, Part 3: Mightv, a BBV TV listings app: Go beyond BBC Backstage, and see how the BBC Backstage environment is being used to create the application Mightyv.
35. Microformats and Web 2.0: See how microformats are being used in Web 2.0 applications, and how they’ll influence the growing web.
36. Microformats and the Decentralized Future of Online Marketing: Read this article to think about microformats in the browser, and what that means for the online experience, particularly marketing.
37. Microformats in Context: Take a look at microformats as a hot new Web 2.0 technology.
38. Microformats in Web Browsers: Check out this concept in browser-based microformats discovery.
39. Discussion of Microformats: Get an introduction, history, and overview of microformats here.
40. Microcontent Aggregators: 43Things: Get an introduction to microcontent aggregators in this post.
41. Microformats Are More than RSS: Get a look at some of the popular microformats online today, as well as ones we can expect in the future.
42. Microformats: Tomorrow’s Web Today: Understand the semantic web and microformats, as well as how you can get started with microformats in this article.
43. Compound Microformats: This presentation discusses combining blocks of HTML to create compound microformats.
44. W3C Looks to GRDDL For Semantic Web Sense: See how Semantic Web developers will use GRDDL to use microformats data.
45. Why Microformats: Learn why microformats are important, how they work, and more.

Tools Use these developer tools to make using and creating microformats easier.

46. hCalendar creator: With this creator, you can preview and copy code for your very own calendar.
47. hAtom transcoder: Output hAtom to Atom 1.0 and RSS 2.0 with this tool.
48. best-guess: Use the best-guess algorithm on ambiguous name components.
49. Buttons: Support microformats by displaying one of these buttons.
50. Safari Microformats Plugin: Use this plugin, and you’ll be alerted any time you visit a site with published microformats.
51. Greasemonkey: Use this Firefox customization tool to make use of microformats.
52. hResume Creator: Fill out this form, and you’ll have a microformatted resume.
53. hKit parser: Create plain text, JavaScript, and PHP outputs of the hKit microformat with this tool.
54. Structured Blogging: Use this tool to create microformats in your blog.
55. Icons: Use these icons to indicate microformats information.
56. Dreamweaver Microformats Extension: This extension will add a few microformats Insert bar tools to Dreamweaver.
57. rel-lint: Use this lint tool to make use of the rel attribute of links.
58. Tails Export: This Firefox extension shows and exports microformats.
59. Spell checking: Add this list of words to your spell check dictionary to make coding microformats easier.
60. hCard creator: Use this tool to quickly and easily generate microformats code for an hCard.
61. Textpattern Microformats Plugin: This plugin adds a number of different microformats tags that can be used with Textpattern.
62. hReview creator: The hReview creator makes it easy to create review code.
63. Microformats Bookmarklet: Use this bookmarklet to select and save individual contacts or events.
64. Operator: This Firefox plugin detects microformat content and offers relevant options and tools.
65. Pingerati: This site connects publishers with microformat index services.

Tutorials Get step-by-step walkthroughs for creating various microformats here.

66. Using Microformats in Your Blog Software: Learn how to add more structure to your blog content with this tutorial.
67. Tutorials on Microformats: Get help in microformats with these tutorials.
68. Highlight Microformats with CSS: In this tutorial, you’ll see how you can highlight microformats using CSS, with examples.
69. Pairing Wine and Microformats: Check out this tutorial to see how microformats can be put to work on a wine review site.
70. Creating microformat hCalendar events with PHP: Get a detailed look at how you can use the hCalendar microformat in PHP.
71. Add Microformats Magic to Your Site: Find out how to use microformats for your site, complete with code.
72. Microformats: Web of Data: See how to use different microformats on your site to facilitate movement of data online.
73. Understanding Elemental Microformats: In this guide, you’ll learn how to manage link spam, Creative Commons, and much more.
74. Using Microformats in WordPress: Get step by step instructions for using microformats such as hCalendar, hCard, and hResume in your WordPress blog.
75. Microformats: Managing Personal and Event Data: See how flexible microformats can be by checking out this guide.
76. Microformats and WordPress Themes: Find out how to make your WordPress pages more readable using microformats.
77. Tutorial: Using hCalendar Microformats: Get a real-world example of using hCalendar microformats in this tutorial.
78. Microformats: Converting XHTML to vCards and iCalendars: This tutorial will show you how to use microformats to embed data in XHTML.
79. Separate Data and Formatting with Microformats: Find out how to read and write microformats for the web with this article.
80. Microformats: More Meaning from Your Markup: This tutorial offers an in-depth look at microformats for people and events.
81. Unobtrustively Mapping Microformats with jQuery: This tutorial will show you how to create a microformat-enabled map with jQuery.
82. Using Microformats in WordPress: Check out this tutorial to learn how to implement microformats in your WordPress blog.

Cheat sheets Use these cheat sheets for quick reference to all things microformat.

83. Microformats Cheat Sheet: Check out this cheat sheet for quick microformats references.
84. cheat-sheet: Check out this wiki directory to find lots of different microformats cheat sheets.
85. Microformats Cheat Sheet: This cheat sheet from ILoveJackDaniels has great information for a number of different cheat sheets.
86. pocket-cheat-sheet: Carry this handy little cheat sheet around in your pocket for quick reference.

Code Here you’ll find lots of sample code that you can use when creating microformats.

87. pydataportability: This collection of tools includes support for microformats in Python.
88. django-microformats: Use this application to create microformats in the Django framework.
89. microformats.css: Use this CSS-based template with existing microformats.
90. Microformats from the Ground Up: Find loads of code and other resources in this presentation.
91. hatom-sparkle: Add hAtom support to Sparkle with this code.
92. filtered-column-hcard-macro: Use this macro to filter columns in Rails.
93. CSS: Check out this code to learn how to deal with objects, abbr, and more.
94. ufperl: ufperl will extract microformats in Perl.
95. python-microformats: Use this library to use and validate microformats in Python.

Information sources For even more information about microformats, check out these books, forums and blogs

96. Microformatique: Get the latest information on microformats through this blog.
97. Using Microformats: Check out this PDF guide from O’Reilly to learn how to use microformats.
98. All in the Head: Drew McLellan’s blog has a lot to say about microformats.
99. reblg Yahoo! Group: Check out this group to discuss reblogging, microformats, portable content, and more.
100. Tantek: View the blog of Tantek Celik to see what an expert has to say about microformats.
101. Microformats Implementation Wiki: See how microformats are being used in applications and more.
102. Official Microformats.org Blog: Get the latest news, developments, and more from this blog.
103. Planet Microformats: This site offers a meta-feed of microformats information from all over the web.
104. Microformats Forums: Here you’ll find general discussion, announcements, developments, and lots more.
105. Microformats: Empowering Your Markup for Web 2.0: Check out this book to learn the why and how of microformats.

Tags: Microformats, Resources